DMN article 040409
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:59 pm
An article titled "An American nightmare" was published in the DMN this morning, herewith my answer:
To the Editor, Dallas Morning News,
I don't know how this becomes an uniquely "American nightmare", recent history has featured massacres in other countries too.
Once again we are presented with a tragic spectacle generated, in part, by the establishment of a “gun free zone.” In NY State it is necessary to have a Pistol Permit to even own a handgun, and there is a hierarchy of permits from merely having the state’s permission to own a handgun to being able to carry one concealed. The shooter here was able to carry out his massacre with confidence that an armed citizen would not disrupt his plan.
As an unwilling resident of that state for many years, due to my parents’ move there when I was an infant and unable to insist on staying in Texas, I can testify that obtaining a permit to even just own a handgun, much less carry one for any of several purposes, can be viewed as virtually impossible. I was never able to obtain one despite honorable service as a Gunner’s Mate in the US Navy, years of service to my community as a volunteer fireman, Red Cross volunteer, and a blemish free record as a citizen without even a speeding ticket to my name, yet here an immigrant barely able to speak English has one.
With these points in mind, and knowing the investigative process that one has to go through to get such a permit, I have to wonder what kind of political pull Jiverly Wong had to enable him to get a permit in the oppressive atmosphere of NY State gun ownership.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control Incorporated), which casts itself as the final arbiter of “gun safety” in America, rates NY State as the sixth highest in its yearly evaluation of the relative safety of the states, how can they get this so wrong, or are they just plain wrong about gun control laws contributing in any way to the safety of the people?
Wong’s massacre shows planning and deadly intent, it’s unlikely that any gun control law would have stopped him, but just one armed citizen might have, the police certainly didn’t, and didn’t even try. A relatively new saying, in danger of becoming cliché, is: “When seconds count, the police are just minutes away.”
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop experimenting with people’s lives and institute some really common sense gun control laws, such as “you control your gun or go to jail” instead of “we get to say whether it’s safe for you to have one.”
Jim Longley
To the Editor, Dallas Morning News,
I don't know how this becomes an uniquely "American nightmare", recent history has featured massacres in other countries too.
Once again we are presented with a tragic spectacle generated, in part, by the establishment of a “gun free zone.” In NY State it is necessary to have a Pistol Permit to even own a handgun, and there is a hierarchy of permits from merely having the state’s permission to own a handgun to being able to carry one concealed. The shooter here was able to carry out his massacre with confidence that an armed citizen would not disrupt his plan.
As an unwilling resident of that state for many years, due to my parents’ move there when I was an infant and unable to insist on staying in Texas, I can testify that obtaining a permit to even just own a handgun, much less carry one for any of several purposes, can be viewed as virtually impossible. I was never able to obtain one despite honorable service as a Gunner’s Mate in the US Navy, years of service to my community as a volunteer fireman, Red Cross volunteer, and a blemish free record as a citizen without even a speeding ticket to my name, yet here an immigrant barely able to speak English has one.
With these points in mind, and knowing the investigative process that one has to go through to get such a permit, I have to wonder what kind of political pull Jiverly Wong had to enable him to get a permit in the oppressive atmosphere of NY State gun ownership.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control Incorporated), which casts itself as the final arbiter of “gun safety” in America, rates NY State as the sixth highest in its yearly evaluation of the relative safety of the states, how can they get this so wrong, or are they just plain wrong about gun control laws contributing in any way to the safety of the people?
Wong’s massacre shows planning and deadly intent, it’s unlikely that any gun control law would have stopped him, but just one armed citizen might have, the police certainly didn’t, and didn’t even try. A relatively new saying, in danger of becoming cliché, is: “When seconds count, the police are just minutes away.”
Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop experimenting with people’s lives and institute some really common sense gun control laws, such as “you control your gun or go to jail” instead of “we get to say whether it’s safe for you to have one.”
Jim Longley
