I knew they were dumb, but not so dumb as to equate buying a gun to prescription drug usage

On Sunday the fish wrap ran its first in what promises to be a very long line of gun grabber letters.  It was such low hanging poorly reasoned fruit I thought I’d let it slide.  I’ve decided that I would respond to every one of the gun grabbers’ letters in the hope of presenting a counter argument to at least one person at the JG.  Here goes:

Re: Letter from Emily Hollenberg, JG Feb 25, 2018

After the FL school shooting I was certain that the gun grabbers would rely on their usual canards to demand a ban/confiscation of certain weapons.  They fall into one of three areas: 

One: they equate guns with the requirement to register automobiles.  Bad example because automobiles are not protected under the constitution.  The primary purpose of car registration is a state fund raising scheme - nothing more. 

Two: shouting, no one needs an AR to go hunting.  Actually the AR is a very popular platform for hunting small game and varmints. Aside from that, of the 27 plain words in the Second Amendment none of them refers hunting.

Three: they swear the second amendment applies to the militia (National Guard) not average citizens.  Actually it doesn’t.  The Second Amendment doesn’t give anyone the right to keep and bear arms.  That was assumed to be an inherent right by the founders. The Second Amendment is directed at congress by restricting it from infringing on the peoples’ inherent right to self-defense from their neighbors and/or a tyrannical government.

So imagine my surprise when the first gun grabber letter to hit the JG’s pages was juxtaposing the procedure for prescription drug usage to buying an AR. 

Given the current news about the carnage prescription drugs are visiting upon the nation, I thought it an odd comparison.  In 2016 374 people were killed with rifles of all types not just the dreaded, but as of yet still undefined, “assault weapon”.  By comparison in 2015 there were over 17,000 over dose deaths from prescription opioid pain relievers.

Oddly, no one is calling for a ban on oxycodone or Demerol.  Merck and Pfizer are not public enemies, and no one is vilifying the membership of the American Medical Association as murderers.  Neither does everyone who has ever watched an episode of House think he’s qualified to offer up the solutions to the opioid drug problem.

Evil people will always find a way to terrorize the public. It may be true, no one has ever killed 59 people with a knife in two minutes. It is just as true that 5 times more murders are committed with knives as rifles. Other means of mass terror off the top of my head include: trucks, airplanes, fertilizer, poison Kool Aide, pressure cookers etc.

No.  Gun store owners will not violate your right to privacy by interrogating you about what you intend to do with your purchase, but they are going to run your name in the NICS system to determine if you’re a felon, wanted for a crime, are the subject of a restraining order, have been reported to have severe mental issues etc.  One interesting thing about Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza is that he did not undergo a background check, because he stole the weapon he used. Hmm, is that a background check loophole?

But I agree.  Enough is enough.  Let’s stop the slaughter by ending the sale and use of prescription drugs!    

   

Time to turn out NRA-bought politicos feb  25,2018

Twice a year, for my prescription to be refilled, I need to make an appointment with my doctor for a full examination. When he's done, he will ask me whether I feel like harming myself or others. Then he will reluctantly give me another bottle of 30 pills, reminding me of how many refills I have until he sees me again to do the same evaluation, all to continue to take a medication I have been on for nearly five years.

All in all, it will take almost an hour. This is normal and, compared to other medications, relatively painless.

When I'm done with my appointment and I have my medication, I can go buy an assault weapon. No one will ask me what I want to use it for. No one will ask whether I feel like harming myself or others. No one will even bat an eyelash. Then I can drive to an elementary school with my assault weapon, shoot my way in through a window and kill 20 schoolchildren the way Adam Lanza did in 2012.

What happens next will be the same. Politicians like Marco Rubio, our own Todd Young and dozens of others who have received millions in NRA donations will make public statements about this tragedy, offering their thoughts and prayers.

These politicians will then sit on their hands and refuse to help craft or push sensible gun-control policies. There will be a vigil, the American people will shake their heads at this senseless tragedy, and we will wonder what could have prevented it, although we already know.

And then someone else will buy an assault weapon tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and they can shoot into your child's elementary school. There have been 1,606 mass shootings since Sandy Hook.

You can say that evil people will find a way whether there is a gun or not. But I ask you this: When is the last time an evil person killed 59 people in less than two minutes with a knife? They haven't, and they can't. Only assault weapons can do that.

Now is the time to talk about this. We need to talk about how it is harder to get life-saving medication than it is to buy an assault weapon that can kill 59 people in two minutes. We need to discuss the failures of our policymakers as they take millions in NRA donations to keep assault weapons in circulation and to perpetrate lies that the government is coming for our guns. We need to write to our legislators and demand they take action. And if they won't, we need to turn up at the polls in November and vote in legislators who will listen to us and who will not be bought by the NRA. We need to make our voices heard.

Enough is enough.

Emily Hollenberg

Fort Wayne