Another antigun liberal -- Surprise, he is a teacher too!

[ericire12]

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_11419249

By Bill Varuola/For the Sun-News
Arguments over the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution are ridiculous. The Second Amendment was devised for only one thing and has never meant anything else. The Founding Generation feared standing armies. It wanted to make certain that our ability to defend ourselves was never compromised by our not being able to possess firearms to that end.

The entire notion was itself compromised by our embracing standing armies and the customs that developed surrounding the individual possession of weaponry that had nothing to do with the Constitution and everything to do with personal preference. Now, we are awash in guns. They are everywhere and each one comes with a rationale.

Some make good sense: law enforcement, the military, collections officers, convenience store clerks, among others, all have a reasonable need to purchase guns. Teenagers, unless they are hunting with a responsible adult, almost never do.

The instances where guns are used to save lives are rare but highly publicized in an effort to balance those instances when they are used to take lives, which are multitudinous and tragic.

***Bill Varuola is 30-year resident of Las Cruces who is employed by the Las Cruces school district as a teacher at the Doña Ana County Juvenile Detention Center.

Contact info for the paper:
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-emailus

[tombogan03884]

My letter in reply

This gentleman's comments about guns are uninformed and show a surprising lack of personal research. Please refer to the following link for factual information with references.
The man who compiled it intentionally AVOIDED using any information from the NRA to avoid accusations of bias.

www.gunfacts.info

To refute a few specific points:
While it is true that guns are not USED to prevent or stop a crime a great deal, the US Justice department under Janet Reno, established the the PRESENCE of a firearm, owned by a law abiding citizen, prevented or stopped crimes between 2 and 3 million times per year. It is excepted that this number is low because prevented crimes often go unreported.
There is no such thing as "gun crime". There is VIOLENT CRIME, which sometimes involves a firearm, but more often involves, knives, fists, clubs, or feet. The problem is not guns, it is violent offenders and the lenient judges who let them off to prey on the rest of us.
There are approximately 33,000 gun related deaths per year in the US, 1/2 of these are suicides, the remaining number includes all forms of accidents, police shootings of suspects, and self defense shootings, out of a population of 300 million, if you avoid drug dealers, gang members and high crime neighbor hoods you have a better chance of hitting the lottery than being shot.
We teach Sex Education in schools to prevent teen pregnancy and STD exposure, we teach Drivers Ed in schools to prevent young drivers from having wrecks. If safety TRULY was the issue, we would have gun safety classes in every school in America.
Gun control is not about guns, it is about control and the Governments usurpation of powers not granted it by the Constitution.
In closing I would like to ask, Robbery, rape, murder and assault are all illegal,if gun control is the answer, then why do Cities and states with stricter gun laws have higher rates of these crimes ? Could it be that criminals (who by definition don't care about your laws ) feel that it is safer for THEM in these places ?

[runstowin]

Little Billy Varuola, you are an over educated fool.

Tom good post.

[deamonpi]

I gotta say the only time I heard reports of self-defense shootings is after I started shooting and reading Self-defense related sites.  Other wise it was very few and FAR between that I heard any justifiable self-defense stories.

[tombogan03884]

I gotta say the only time I heard reports of self-defense shootings is after I started shooting and reading Self-defense related sites.  Other wise it was very few and FAR between that I heard any justifiable self-defense stories.

That's because actual shooting's are relatively rare, in the vast majority of cases the THREAT of being shot is enough to deter most " professional" criminals, they are looking for easy pickings, not a gun fight. Those who are mentally or chemically impaired, or have a personal motive for an attack are less likely to be deterred, and more likely to get shot.

[Sponsor]

[deamonpi]

I was responding to a quote from the article ;

The instances where guns are used to save lives are rare but highly publicized in an effort to balance those instances when they are used to take lives, which are multitudinous and tragic.

I do realize actual self-defense shootings are relatively rare, but to say they are highly publicized is an erroneous statement, as I have seen hardly any publicized, until after I became a shooter abd started looking for stories

[tombogan03884]

I was responding to a quote from the article ;I do realize actual self-defense shootings are relatively rare, but to say they are highly publicized is an erroneous statement, as I have seen hardly any publicized, until after I became a shooter abd started looking for stories

Much more highly publicized LOCALLY, national media tend to shy away from any story that shows firearms in a positive light.