Tag: guns

On
Larry Wipperfurth

Don’t take guns away from law-abiding citizens

To the editor:

After reading Mary Uhler’s editorial in the June 30 issue of The Catholic Herald, I felt a need to respond. The term “common sense gun control” has been a familiar headline in the news lately, but when you read further (as in Mary Uhler’s editorial), it’s just another attack of the Second Amendment.

In one paragraph, Mary says, “I’m not calling for a ban on gun ownership,” while just one paragraph later the heading reads, “Do civilians really need assault weapons?” She goes on to quote a Dallas area bishop who calls for a ban on all semi-automatic rifles. Just think if this logic was used against the First Amendment — kind of scary, right?

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Curbing gun violence: Treat ownership of guns more like ownership of cars

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

Parents of children killed in the December 14, 2012, Newtown, Conn., massacre have been giving powerful testimony to legislators on proposed tougher gun laws at public hearings in their own state and elsewhere.

At a hearing in Connecticut, Veronique Pozner said of her son, “Noah was our six-year-old force of nature.” Noah was one of 20 first-graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“He lies forever motionless in the earth. He will never get to attend middle school or high school, kiss a girl, attend college, pick a career path, fall in love, marry, have children, or travel the world,” his mother said.

It is indeed sad that these children were killed by a man who obtained a gun from his own home. The lives of these 20 children and so many other people in our country have been snuffed out by people wielding guns.

How can we deal with this situation? There are many issues involved, including our Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. In my mind, this refers more to the military defense of our country, but, of course, it can also apply to self-defense. However, I don’t believe that ordinary citizens need assault weapons to protect themselves.

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On
John R. Smith

America’s problems occur when Constitution ignored

To the editor:

In response to last week’s disturbing column by Stephen Kent and the need to change the Second Amendment, it should be pointed out that all of America’s problems — slavery, the relocation of Native Americans, prohibition, concentration camps for Japanese-Americans, undeclared wars, and Roe v. Wade — occurred when we ignored or “improved” the Constitution.

Even more curious is the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ statement that guns are too easily accessible. Were it not for the Second Amendment, there would be no Catholic Herald, a Conference of Catholic Bishops, or even Catholics, for that matter, since we would long ago have been hunted down like rats, just like in the mother country of Merrie Olde England.

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