"Where Olmsted County News Comes First"
Online Edition
Monday, May 20th, 2013
Volume ∞ Issue ∞
- 5:36:49, May 15th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - Though I hated to see you reference Glenn Beck by name [Three Times ... [Read More]
- 11:42:07, May 10th 2013 - yenken - I feel very sorry for those who have commented do far, as when you stand fa ... [Read More]
- 12:10:25, Apr 26th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - Mr. "Cabtrom's" garbage-out[burst]--in response to Ms. Reisner's w ... [Read More]
- 9:51:50, Apr 24th 2013 - jeff pischke - To Jerry Grehl, the number to the fillmore county sheriffs office is 7 ... [Read More]
- 9:27:24, Apr 22nd 2013 - Cabtrom - Blah blah blah, garbage in garbage out! ... [Read More]
- 7:00:49, Apr 11th 2013 - Donald Pierce - Col. Stan Gudmundson hit most of the important nails squarly on the h ... [Read More]
- 12:44:54, Apr 4th 2013 - Frank Hawthorne - My compliments to Ms. Hammer for giving us well-crafted "Rachel Rea ... [Read More]
- 5:09:06, Apr 3rd 2013 - truthiness - I see this is dated April 1. That explains it! ... [Read More]
- 12:04:33, Apr 3rd 2013 - Frank W. Hawthorne - Say WHAT?!? Stan's American-Pie [In SKY] is Falling--Not Again? ... [Read More]
- 12:40:21, Mar 29th 2013 - Jacob - It's a shame that so few people care about making their voices heard. If we ... [Read More]
28
Should the Vikings be able to use the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium?
Guest Commentary: Gun control
Mon, Feb 11th, 2013
Posted in Commentary
Posted in Commentary
Comment(1)
Jerry Nau
By Jerry Nau
The debate on so-called gun control has been a continuing dialogue for decades. My first gun control article I ever submitted to a paper was back in 1958. Except for a few statistics that same article could be dubplicated today.
We have a public that is very ignorant on the constitution and it seems very ignorant on the 2nd Amendment. The majority of the public cannot differentiate between sporting rifles and so-called assault weapons, between semi-automatic weapons, between clips and magazines but yet want to offer advice on these to our elected officials.
Somehow the majority of people associate hunting with the right to keep and bear arms segment of the 2nd Amendment. Nowhere is hunting mentioned in this amendment and has nothing to do with the “shall not be infringed” wording.
The public has no idea of that the word “militia” is referenced to in the 2nd Amendment. In the state of Minnesota citizens of the state between 18 and 45 years of age are in the unorganized militia. This has absolutely nothing to do with the National Guard or military services.
The public is constantly bombarded with code words such as, “for the children,” “working families,” “gun violence,” and “sensible gun control.”
Statistics are constantly given out to remind the public how many deaths are caused by firearms. Never are the true facts and figures given out by the media on the number of lives that are actually saved and the number of crimes prevented by the use of a firearm.
John Lott, Jr. in his book More Guns Less Crime indicated that up to several million times each year a firearm is used to prevent crime. If this fact was disseminated to the general public and it was found that firearms actually prevented crime, the opinion on firearms would profoundly change.
Doing research for just Olmsted County and looking at the number of murders committed in the last 30 years, one would find that firearm deaths were the cause of only 20 percent of the total number of murders. In fact, the great mass murder in the county, a whole family of four was killed by using a common axe.
Minnesota has a very large number of citizens using firearms. If one just counts the number of armed citizens hunting during the deer season, it would appraoch nearly 500,000. I am sure that there are over one million households with firearms in this state.
If gun-free zones prevent crime, then cities like Detroit and Chicago should be relatively safe cities. Last year in Chicago, a nearly total gun free city, over 500 murders were committed with firearms. A fact we have to realize is that criminals do not follow laws and gun laws are one of them.
Our legal system needs tremendous overhaul concerning crime. In many cases criminals using firearms are given reduced sentences or plea bargained sentences. We do not take these crimes seriously enough to enforce sentencing standards already written in our laws. Therefore one has to ask why we are introducing more and more gun control laws into effect when current ones are not being enforced. There are thousands and thousands of local, state, and national laws that are not being presented in these court proceedings.
Why do our school systems not introduce firearm safety and training in the curriculum? If the schools have the time and expend the effort for other types of safety education, such as drivers training, sex education, drug education, CPR instruction, then why not firearms education?
Currently in the state of Minnesota, nearly 125 schools have either introduced or re-introduced trap shooting in the curriculum. After taking this training students and parents ahve found that this is indeed an enjoyable, entertaining, and safe sporting endeavor. The NRA has for many years presented for schools, clubs, and many other organizations the Eddie Eagle firearm safety training program.
There are many positive aspects of firearms that can and should be introduced into our society; but the anti-gun agenda would be offended.
The Bill of Rights is not a bill of wants. The constitution does not grant these rights but guarantees and protect these rights! Way too many individuals have absolutely no idea of the importance and true meaning of our constitution. Is the consitution being taught in our school systems? If not, why not?
One could regress into the past and see why America is different than all other countries of the world. Why does the population of nearly every country want to gain entrance into America? The fact that thousands enter each day illegally should give us reason to appreciate our heritage and freedoms we currently enjoy.
Our constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence is worth preserving, protecting, and defending forever, as did our forefathers.
An armed man is a citizen; and unarmed man is a subject.
The debate on so-called gun control has been a continuing dialogue for decades. My first gun control article I ever submitted to a paper was back in 1958. Except for a few statistics that same article could be dubplicated today.
We have a public that is very ignorant on the constitution and it seems very ignorant on the 2nd Amendment. The majority of the public cannot differentiate between sporting rifles and so-called assault weapons, between semi-automatic weapons, between clips and magazines but yet want to offer advice on these to our elected officials.
Somehow the majority of people associate hunting with the right to keep and bear arms segment of the 2nd Amendment. Nowhere is hunting mentioned in this amendment and has nothing to do with the “shall not be infringed” wording.
The public has no idea of that the word “militia” is referenced to in the 2nd Amendment. In the state of Minnesota citizens of the state between 18 and 45 years of age are in the unorganized militia. This has absolutely nothing to do with the National Guard or military services.
The public is constantly bombarded with code words such as, “for the children,” “working families,” “gun violence,” and “sensible gun control.”
Statistics are constantly given out to remind the public how many deaths are caused by firearms. Never are the true facts and figures given out by the media on the number of lives that are actually saved and the number of crimes prevented by the use of a firearm.
John Lott, Jr. in his book More Guns Less Crime indicated that up to several million times each year a firearm is used to prevent crime. If this fact was disseminated to the general public and it was found that firearms actually prevented crime, the opinion on firearms would profoundly change.
Doing research for just Olmsted County and looking at the number of murders committed in the last 30 years, one would find that firearm deaths were the cause of only 20 percent of the total number of murders. In fact, the great mass murder in the county, a whole family of four was killed by using a common axe.
Minnesota has a very large number of citizens using firearms. If one just counts the number of armed citizens hunting during the deer season, it would appraoch nearly 500,000. I am sure that there are over one million households with firearms in this state.
If gun-free zones prevent crime, then cities like Detroit and Chicago should be relatively safe cities. Last year in Chicago, a nearly total gun free city, over 500 murders were committed with firearms. A fact we have to realize is that criminals do not follow laws and gun laws are one of them.
Our legal system needs tremendous overhaul concerning crime. In many cases criminals using firearms are given reduced sentences or plea bargained sentences. We do not take these crimes seriously enough to enforce sentencing standards already written in our laws. Therefore one has to ask why we are introducing more and more gun control laws into effect when current ones are not being enforced. There are thousands and thousands of local, state, and national laws that are not being presented in these court proceedings.
Why do our school systems not introduce firearm safety and training in the curriculum? If the schools have the time and expend the effort for other types of safety education, such as drivers training, sex education, drug education, CPR instruction, then why not firearms education?
Currently in the state of Minnesota, nearly 125 schools have either introduced or re-introduced trap shooting in the curriculum. After taking this training students and parents ahve found that this is indeed an enjoyable, entertaining, and safe sporting endeavor. The NRA has for many years presented for schools, clubs, and many other organizations the Eddie Eagle firearm safety training program.
There are many positive aspects of firearms that can and should be introduced into our society; but the anti-gun agenda would be offended.
The Bill of Rights is not a bill of wants. The constitution does not grant these rights but guarantees and protect these rights! Way too many individuals have absolutely no idea of the importance and true meaning of our constitution. Is the consitution being taught in our school systems? If not, why not?
One could regress into the past and see why America is different than all other countries of the world. Why does the population of nearly every country want to gain entrance into America? The fact that thousands enter each day illegally should give us reason to appreciate our heritage and freedoms we currently enjoy.
Our constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence is worth preserving, protecting, and defending forever, as did our forefathers.
An armed man is a citizen; and unarmed man is a subject.
Comments:
2165
3:01:31, Feb 13th 2013
Frank Hawthorne says: