To the Editor:
I, too, am really frustrated because this most recent school shooting is not about mundane politics but these recent letters have lowered it to just that level. They have fallen right in with the crowd calling for more gun control.
The most important question to ask when something like this happens is, “How could it have been prevented?” In this case, as in most all, more gun control would have had NO IMPACT whatsoever. This was not a failure of law enactment, it was a failure of law enforcement! There are many people who have earned blame in this one but the NRA is not on the list. The facts are out there and very plain to see if someone is willing to look at them rather than jump on the demonize the NRA bandwagon.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”, is a quote by Rahm Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff. That’s what’s in play here. When you have a crisis, you can do things you couldn’t get away with otherwise so the anti-gun lobby and the willing media is taking advantage of this crisis to promote their agenda. Many people are following along, some because they just don’t know any better but some for other reasons.
50+ warnings went to the Sherriff’s department and the FBI about this kid. How was he legally able to buy a gun? Knowing what we know now, HE WAS NOT. Law enforcement (and an Obama Justice Dept. program called the Promise program which literally encourages and rewards schools and law enforcement for under-reporting incidents with troubled youth) did not do their job. This kid would have been banned from buying a slingshot HAD EXISTING LAWS BEEN ENFORCED. I don’t want to hear about new laws until we are willing to enforce the ones we have.
And for those who think the AR 15 is some magic killing machine, it uses a relatively small (.223) projectile and people often do hunt deer with just that caliber. There are many weapons that are far more powerful. The AR 15 is very popular weapon and has become the target of the gun lobby. AR 15=BAD, NRA=BAD is the cry. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” That quote is by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister.
We don’t have a gun crisis, we have a, “lack of fathers” crisis, we have a diminishing respect for law enforcement crisis and we have a censorship crisis which so restricts us from dealing with these and so many social issues which plague our culture because we will be accused, or sued or prosecuted for being politically incorrect. I have no doubt I will encounter this sentiment to some extent myself.
Michael Shaffer
St. George, WV