Gun owners need to meet license requirements

Re: “Guns protect us from tyrannical government.” by Walter E. Williams, Oct. 21:

The writer came up with a number of suppositions. One example used “suppose a young punk knows he can knock out an innocent person and not suffer physical pain himself, such as being knocked out, what happens to his willingness to play the knockout game?”

Similar examples were used, all illustrating our willingness to inflict pain if we do not experience it in return. A perfect example of that was in last week’s news.

A young punk was angry regarding the driving behavior by another vehicle. Knowing that he would not be “knocked out,” he took a gun always kept in his vehicle solely to protect him from a potentially tyrannical government, and fired.

The 4-year-old girl who was instantly killed would never know her first date, senior prom, marriage, children or the next 80 or more years of life. The punk then left the scene not “knocked out” and left the parents with a lifetime of grieving.

An unusual case, you say. Look at the statistics. More Americans have died from gun violence in the U.S. since 1970 than in all the battlefields in all wars in American history. Naturally, that does not include the much larger number wounded or maimed during that same period in this country.

Mr. Williams, the enemy within the U.S. is not a tyrannical government we need to arm ourselves against like North Korea, the Islamic State or the others.

Face it. We Are The Enemy. We who freely shed tears while singing “Proud To Be Americans” at the close of a local show but don't let some erratic driver give us the finger on the way home. At least not if we have a gun in the car.

In Mr. Williams’s article, he refers to the liberals’ ignorance of the Second Amendment and of the wisdom of people like James Madison, Jefferson, and the others - all born in Colonial America in the 1700s and all believing that Colonists be properly armed with those flintlock pistols because the British are coming or will come again. Yes, protection against “outside” others, not each other.

Times have changed. Hand Mr. Madison an AK-47 and show him what this strange contraption does and the carnage it can inflict in seconds and there just might be only nine amendments in the Bill of Rights.

Liberals are not against the Second Amendment. We are for much tougher gun laws because of the type of weapons Mr. Madison never envisioned. You do not need to know how to clean, load, or fire a gun to own one. You are not required to take a class at a gun range and proove you can properly handle this deadly equipment before a purchase. All the tests required for getting a driving license should apply to gun ownership. You can be legally blind and still own a gun. There is no vision test.

And so it goes. The carnage continues daily and the NRA calmly points out no changes are needed . End of sermon. Amen.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Gun owners need to meet license requirements."