Need Response toFrederick News-Post Letterr

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  • Ranger Tom

    Active Member
    Jan 28, 2013
    501
    Woodsboro MD
    Need someone to respond to a letter to the editor in todays Frederick News- Post titled "save lives now". The letter writer claims to have been one of 1000 at the State House supporting Owemalleys gun control and then continues with a bunch of gun control advocate drival. The letter writer needs to have the facts and be much calmer than I am at the moment.
     

    buzzsaw

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 26, 2013
    3,225
    Hagerstown
    Pardon the length, and feel free to put in some sources and such.

    This letter is written in response to a March 9, 2013, letter to the editor regarding a pro-gun-control advocate’s feelings on Gov. Martin O’Malley’s gun control bills currently being reviewed in the Maryland General Assembly. Readers are encouraged to review those bills, known as SB 281 and HB 294 – their text can be found through a simple search at http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmLegislation.aspx?pid=legisnpage&tab=subject3

    Gun control supporters such as Ms. Breiling frequently make the argument that the second amendment was created in a different time – certainly, this is true! However, the context of that amendment was to allow the citizenry of the United States to have a tool at their disposal to depose any tyrannical government which might arise in the future of the country. This context, the ability to protect ourselves from a government wishing to infringe or take away our rights, has not changed one bit since 1776.
    Two recent decisions by the Supreme Court have clearly identified that this right does not require any standing force (militia) to be considered in its application. If Ms. Breiling would like to get down to brass tacks over her definition, though, I would like to point out the frequency with which the citizens who legally exercise their 2nd amendment rights train (aka practice, aka visit the shooting range).
    Ms. Breiling seems to have neither read nor understood the text within the bills she speaks of in her letter. First, the bills both aim to ban future purchase of certain weapons based solely on cosmetic features – features which any owner of those firearms would be glad to demonstrate do not affect the actual firearm itself. Secondly, the bills go one step further and state that while currently owned firearms under this designation would be “Grandfathered” in, they would be prohibited from being taken out of the state and then brought back in. Third, any new resident to MD state would be completely prohibited from bringing such a gun in. Fourth, all such weapons would be required to be registered with the State – a step which history has proven (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and Communist China to name a few) is a precursor to confiscation of firearms. Finally, Ms. Breiling fails to bring up the biggest point – these bills amount to the equivalent of a Poll Tax, a fee for exercising an enumerated right from the Constitution. Such taxes were deemed unconstitutional in the Twenty Fourth amendment to the Constitution (1937 Supreme Court case Breedlove v Suttles).
    I would kindly ask Ms. Brieling if she was willing to pay a tax, take a government mandated training course, and have her name and private information on a state roster, in order to write her letter to this periodical. If it seems unreasonable to fetter our rights to simple and proper First Amendment exercises, why, then, does she believe that the same exact steps are legitimate when discussing the exercise of our Second Amendment?
    While licensing is a noble ideal, it is a fallacious argument to compare it to a driver’s license. It should be reminded to all readers that driving is a PRIVLIGE and not an enumerated RIGHT. Additionally, Ms. Breiling seems to ignore the fact that drivers license tests are not required to be re-taken, which is another requirement within Mr. O’Malley’s bill.
    Ms. Breiling then goes on to discuss a few statistics related to a Washington Post article and accompanying United Nations office. The figures from the Washington Post may be true (4.3% of the world’s population is in the US); however, those from the United Nations report are falsely reported (a quick search reveals that the actual gun homicide rate for the U.S. is only 3.2 persons per 100,000 – and reviewing a list of 74 other countries which reported gun related deaths allows a reader with a calculator to see that the true average to be 4.543 persons per 100,000 in these countries, a far cry from the claim that the US is twelve times worse than our counterparts around the world).
    Ms. Breiling is apparently “cherry picking” her statistics. Gun-related crimes may be higher here in the United States, but those are not the only crimes we citizens should consider. Crimes that pro-control advocates seem to forget, neglect, or ignore, also include rape, robbery, assault, and a number of other activities. All of these Violent Crimes take place in countries such as Great Britain, France, and Australia, at rates more than double that in the US. A 2009 report from the Daily Mail, a newspaper in the UK, indicated the following statistics for number of Violent Crimes per 100,000 citizens:
    UK – 2,034 per hundred thousand
    Australia – 1,677 per hundred thousand
    South Africa – 1,609 per hundred thousand

    Canada – 935 per hundred thousand
    United States – 466 per hundred thousand
    Should we go so far as to suggest that Ms. Breiling and others are OK with the documented increase in Violent Crime in general which has been observed in countries which haughtily proclaim their gun control policies? I, for one, have just as much desire to be stabbed, beaten, mugged, raped, etc, as I do to be shot.
    The discussion by Ms. Breiling regarding the Feb 21 FNP column again ignores the fact that this “public health research” was funded by a pro-control advocacy group, and as such was slanted towards producing results which would support the pro-control crowd’s ideas. It also ignores the fact that although those states may have the highest rate of gun homicide, that is easily offset (and, when considered apples-to-apples against MD’s rates) by the lack of other violent crimes in those states.
    Instead, I would recommend readers begin looking into truly robust, unbiased research results – such as “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” by D. Kates and G. Mauser (which showed that while U.S. homicide rates declined over 25 year period, gun ownership more than doubled – 103% - in the same time frame, discrediting the argument that “more guns will lead to more crime”), and the NIJ’s
    I certainly agree with Ms. Breiling’s final point that gun deaths are sad – any death not caused by old age is sad! However, ignoring the true root cause of ALL crime, not just gun crime, will not benefit our society. The only people who stand to benefit from gun control are the criminals who have less fear over reprisal, and the politicians who pander to the uneducated and ignorant.
    We should be encouraging our politicians to dig deeper, to the real root cause of this problem –the people who commit the crimes. Taking away one tool will not stop a criminal from committing his crime – it wont even prevent that criminal from obtaining said tool! Only 4% of weapons used in homicides in the United States were found to be legally obtained by the murderer. Four Percent. Criminals will follow HB 294 and SB 281 just as much as they follow current federal and state laws.
    These bills do nothing but infringe on the rights of law abiding Maryland citizens. They turn lawful people into criminals, and invite criminals into a state where the populous has no means of defense against their violent crimes.
    I would encourage every reader here in Frederick to fact check the information that our politicians are doling out, regardless of the senator or delegate it comes from. Read the bills. And finally, consider the history of the world - if we do not learn from our past, we are doomed to repeat it.
     

    Copper

    Shock Trooper In Stooper
    Jan 26, 2012
    401
    Is there something missing from NIJs. Almost as if the sentence was cut off, other than that it is written very well. I hope it gets published, we are talking FNP.
     

    Ranger Tom

    Active Member
    Jan 28, 2013
    501
    Woodsboro MD
    My letter to the editor of the FNP. Sending in the AM if I hear no response from you guys.

    March 12, 2013


    I must take exception to the letter “Save Lives Now” printed in the March 9, 2013 News-Post. The author makes numerous erroneous statements and tends to stray from certain facts. The number of people (many were bused in school children) gathered in Annapolis supporting the governors bill(s) at no time numbered over a few hundred where as the number opposing the bill were in the thousands. The MD Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) representing over 23,000 active and retired law enforcement personnel and 24 (of 26) elected Sheriffs in Maryland are on record opposing the bill(s)
    The arguement that the Second Ammendment was created in a different time and context is wrongheaded.
    The miltia at the time were the individuals who took up arms against an oppressive goverment. Thus "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." (Second Amendment to the Constitution). The nine other Amendments were written at the same time, do you think that since they were created in a different time with a possible different context that they no longer have the same meanings?
    Yes, the licsensing gun owners is a major bone of contention in the governors bill, your analogy of gun ownership to driving is simplistic. Driving is a priviledge, owership of a fire arm is a Right provided for by the Constitution of the United States.

    The statement you attribute to Baltimore County States Attorny Scott Shellenberger about “not taking anybody’s guns" is incredulous. The firearms regulation bills (at last count 79) introduced in this session of the General assembly propose prohibiting currently firearms from being sold in the state, increaseing regulation of others, creating a gun registry, causing undue hardship on citizens by licensing fees, untold costs for getting fingerprinted and time spent obtaining permits, and increasing taxes by as much as 50%. There are only a handfull of bills that actually address the criminal aspect of gun crimes. Nothing in the governor’s bill does anything to address crime committed by firearms. The only mention of criminal is if a currently legal owner does not register or does not obtain a permit to have the firearm.). This state currently has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, judges and prosecutors need to enforce the laws and sentence the lawbreakers to the maximum penalty.


    You cannot compare death by gun in the United States to other developed countries simply because those countries have confiscated their citizens firearms. The United States is not the number one nation in homicides, almost every Central American, South American, African, and Asian country has higher homicide rates. In 2012 the UNODC data shows a worldwide homicide rate (all types) of 6.9 homicides/100,000 people, in the United States the rate was 4.2 homicides/100,000 people, this from the country that owns 50 % of the worlds guns.

    Yes we have differences in thinking about gun control and we can unite that gun deaths are sad. It is when politicians and their supporters, under the guise of saving lives, restrict my rights to defend loved ones, my life and property that we disagree. This we can not compromise on.
     

    Ranger Tom

    Active Member
    Jan 28, 2013
    501
    Woodsboro MD
    Wife proofed it with some minor changes it's on the way to FNP.

    Thanks Metaterra, wonder what planet these people are from, Owe----- (insert bama or malley)ville?
     

    doug38s

    BIGELOW
    Mar 28, 2012
    196
    Sharpsburg
    The writer is on facebook. I've been conversing with her over the past couple of days. She's never handled a firearm and feels no one should have one. I invited her to come shoot with us, anytime, anyplace.
     

    osterizer

    Member
    Mar 9, 2013
    26
    The writer is on facebook. I've been conversing with her over the past couple of days. She's never handled a firearm and feels no one should have one. I invited her to come shoot with us, anytime, anyplace.

    Then she's ignorant and uneducated (or incapable of using her education). None of this is complex.
     

    buzzsaw

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 26, 2013
    3,225
    Hagerstown
    Hey guys -

    Yes, I realized the NIJ got cut off ( i was typing this at the end of the work day yesterday, and meant to point to the NIJ report that the 94-04 awb did nothing). If you filled it in, awesome.

    As mentioned, feel free to take it and do whatever with it. Happy to be of service - I had submitted a different letter about 2 weeks ago. No idea if it got published or not.
     

    buzzsaw

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 26, 2013
    3,225
    Hagerstown
    I'm wondering if the editor (Mr Randall) remembers me from playing soccer with us when I was younger. Chance that I might be able to exploit that to get something published... Though I would probably want a bit more hard statistical evidence, quotes from the HB and SB text, etc.
     

    Ranger Tom

    Active Member
    Jan 28, 2013
    501
    Woodsboro MD
    Emailed and sent my letter to the editor through their website. Waiting for the call that acknowledges they received it. Randall's not the page editor, Clifford Cumber is, but if you can exploit going over his head, go for it.
     

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