Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/100060
OPINION a beer. Under the guise of a vaguely worded ��� Ban body armor ��� Likewise, no one who Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is not a soldier in combat or a law enforcethis lobby has exalted guns and gun ownerment officer has need of sophisticated body ship to a degree unimagined by our Founding armor that protects the wearer from gunFathers. shots. Ownership of body armor is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment, and posAs a consequence, we as a nation are subjectsessing it should be a serious felony. ed periodically to the horror of a shooting massacre, whether in a theater in Aurora, CO, a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, a university ��� Regulate firearm sales ��� The ownership of a gun might be a constitutional right in Virginia ��� or an elementary school in Newfor most, but it should not be for violent town, CT. The blood of the innocents flows criminals or the mentally incompetent. A just as freely at the behest of our modern-day rigorous background check should be unHerod, the National Rifle Association. dertaken on all prospective purchases of Despite the organization���s fatuous maxims, firearms. If that results in a six-week, sixsuch as ���Guns don���t kill people. People kill month or six-year backlog, so be it. The people,��� the sad truth is that the omnipresent Second Amendment does not guarantee firearm is used too frequently to kill in this you can buy a firearm this afternoon. Oh ��� country. Consider how we compare to other and ban gun shows and sales that are open nations in the civilized world: Last year, 17 to the public. people were killed with guns in Finland; 35 in Australia; 39 in England and Wales; 60 in Spain; 194 in Germany; and 200 in Canada. In ��� Prosecute noncompliance by gun dealers vigorously ��� Gun dealers who do not rigthe United States? More than 9,400! orously enforce the purchase procedures, Adam Lanza may have been identified as the including all background checks, should be shooter in the Newtown massacre, but every prosecuted as accomplices if any firearms person who has bemoaned efforts to ban asthey sell are subsequently used by their cussault weapons, or limit the easy availability of tomers in violent crimes. After a few firefirearms through more intensive background arms dealers go to prison potentially for checks, shares complicity in this tragedy. life for enabling the next mass murderer, Despite the U.S. Supreme Court���s recent asperhaps the remainder will get the message: surance that the Second Amendment protects Gun sale regulations are to protect everyour right to possess firearms, the government one, and they do not diminish anyone���s Seccan and should do a number of things that can ond Amendment rights. lessen greatly the odds of another tragedy: ��� Ban assault weapons ��� Sophisticated fire- On Dec. 28, let us reflect equally on the tragearms that are used by soldiers in combat or dy of the Holy Innocents, both in Herod���s day by tactical squads of law enforcement offi- and in recent weeks. Let us resolve to do evcers do not belong in the hands of ordinary erything possible to ensure it does not happen again. citizens.