Letter: An emotional plea

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January 20, 2013

Letter: An emotional plea

Anonymous The Dalton Daily Citizen Sun Jan 20, 2013, 05:21 AM EST

Does it strike anyone as odd that the same political party that wants to use the tragic murders of 20 children to strip constitutional rights from gun owners is the same party that wants us to view 3,000 abortions performed every day as just common medical procedures? Perhaps this seemingly contradictory moral stance on human life is due to the fact that so many positions on the left have their basis in emotion, rather than fact. Even their choice of which guns to ban is not based on any kind of rationale, consider that according to the FBI less than 5 percent of gun homicides are committed with any kind of rifle, including the evil “assault rifle” that is the latest bugaboo.

Last week Biden stated that if their efforts at reducing gun freedoms "save one life,” they are worth it. This all-too-common, emotionally hollow statement was beneath even him. Can economic value can be placed on human life? Before you say “it’s priceless,” consider this: Creating a national speed limit of 45, or a mandate to fill in all swimming pools, would save exponentially more children’s lives than the current gun control proposals. Not to mention that swimming pool ownership would be much easier to track than gun ownership. Are those trade-offs you’re willing to make? I didn’t think so.

More facts: Rural areas have higher rates of gun ownership, but much lower rates of homicide. Also, less than 2 percent of guns used by criminals come from gun shows. That liberal panacea of gun control, Great Britain, historically already had much lower rates of homicide than the U.S., even when their gun laws, or gun freedoms, were similar to ours. Pair that with the fact countries like Russia, Brazil and Mexico have much stricter gun laws than ours but astronomically higher homicide rates and it becomes apparent that gun availability has little to do with the level of a nation’s violence.

Unfortunately, these logical statements will not sway one who judges on emotion. Maybe we need to approach them along their way of thinking?

So, in closing, I’ll mention that gun ownership has been shown to help single-mothers feel more secure, while shooting sports have also boosted the self-esteem of many children. Surely, liberals, you wouldn’t favor legislation that would threaten the security of a single mother or bruise the self-esteem of a child? Why, that might take away the confidence he needs to become the next generation’s Al Gore, and then who would save those cuddly polar bears from global warming?

Philip King

Dalton

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