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Call for tighter gun laws is an ignorant response
Letter to the editor
by Andy Dolberg |
PUBLISHED ON 4/25/07 IN Commentary
To Elon Glucklich: You are completely ignorant about violent crime ("Controlling the threat," ODE, Apr. 23, 2007).
If you ever encounter a violent situation, you will realize that it will probably include only two people - you and the attacker. Your family and friends who care most about your safety will not be able to help, and the police will certainly not be there. You will be the only person able to end the situation for the better. You will feel very afraid, and very alone. You will then ask yourself, "How do I get out of here alive?" to which there is only one thing you can do: Use the training and instincts that you have.
Only action on your part will help you in a violent situation. At Virginia Tech, the kids who jumped out of windows survived execution; those who waited for help did not. The police in Littleton, Colo. and Virginia Tech both showed cowardice by failing to even attempt to confront the gunmen while innocent students were being slaughtered. As a matter of fact, they both hid behind trees and buildings until the gunfire stopped in both instances.
When you called for the elimination of the right to bear arms, you called for the disarming of the victims of violence. Your calls for more laws do not stop criminals from getting guns and using them to harm others; just ask the "gun-free" cities of Washington D.C., Chicago and New York, all of which have banned handguns. Laws prohibiting guns are just as effective as laws that prohibit marijuana, coke, meth and other drugs - not terribly effective.
If the police were the only ones capable of protecting us, then thousands of murders and the VT shootings wouldn't have occurred. It is truly sick when DPS tells us that we are safe on campus when they do not have the means to defend themselves. What are they going to do, write a citation to a crazed murderer? Even if they were armed, I am confident they would be just as cowardly as the VT and Littleton police.
Survivors of violence have one thing in common: they acted. Everyone has the right to live and the right to defend that life. Calling for victim disarmament is ignorant.
Andy Dolberg
Publisher of the Oregon Commentator
If you ever encounter a violent situation, you will realize that it will probably include only two people - you and the attacker. Your family and friends who care most about your safety will not be able to help, and the police will certainly not be there. You will be the only person able to end the situation for the better. You will feel very afraid, and very alone. You will then ask yourself, "How do I get out of here alive?" to which there is only one thing you can do: Use the training and instincts that you have.
Only action on your part will help you in a violent situation. At Virginia Tech, the kids who jumped out of windows survived execution; those who waited for help did not. The police in Littleton, Colo. and Virginia Tech both showed cowardice by failing to even attempt to confront the gunmen while innocent students were being slaughtered. As a matter of fact, they both hid behind trees and buildings until the gunfire stopped in both instances.
When you called for the elimination of the right to bear arms, you called for the disarming of the victims of violence. Your calls for more laws do not stop criminals from getting guns and using them to harm others; just ask the "gun-free" cities of Washington D.C., Chicago and New York, all of which have banned handguns. Laws prohibiting guns are just as effective as laws that prohibit marijuana, coke, meth and other drugs - not terribly effective.
If the police were the only ones capable of protecting us, then thousands of murders and the VT shootings wouldn't have occurred. It is truly sick when DPS tells us that we are safe on campus when they do not have the means to defend themselves. What are they going to do, write a citation to a crazed murderer? Even if they were armed, I am confident they would be just as cowardly as the VT and Littleton police.
Survivors of violence have one thing in common: they acted. Everyone has the right to live and the right to defend that life. Calling for victim disarmament is ignorant.
Andy Dolberg
Publisher of the Oregon Commentator
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Curtis Taylor
posted 4/25/07 @ 1:07 AM PST
Eight years ago this week, the young people in Littleton, Colorado suffered a horrible attack at Columbine High School, and almost exactly six months ago, five young people were killed at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. (Continued…)
Tim Yellows
posted 4/25/07 @ 9:27 AM PST
Fact: Gun related fatalities in the US:
In 2005 14,000 routine killings
16,000 suicides
650 accidents (2004)
400 children murdered
Since Kennedy was shot in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century. (Continued…)
C. Phillips
posted 4/25/07 @ 1:50 PM PST
In regards to Mr. Andy Dolberg's Letter To The Editor-
Mr. Dolberg, you make some good arguments when talking about how gun control laws usually hurt only the people who are responsible about owning one, but you show your lack of knowledge about law enforcement when you say that the police at V Tech and Colorado are cowards. (Continued…)
Jay
posted 4/25/07 @ 1:56 PM PST
If someone wants a gun bad enough they are going to get one no matter what laws you pass. Scream gun control all you want but it isn't going to change anything. (Continued…)
A UO Student
posted 4/30/07 @ 9:39 AM PST
I agree with C. Phillips' eloquent response.
Students at this school have this anti-EPD, anti-DPS attitude that is so immature. Law enforcement is not perfect, but I am constantly amazed at the lack of respect and appreciation that students have for people who risk everything to keep them safe. (Continued…)
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