Posted 8:28 pm Friday, January 18, 2013
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Gun Control, January 18
A bottle of whiskey and a loaded gun are two inanimate, morally neutral objects. In the hands of a responsible person a loaded pistol can prevent crime, save lives, and defend our national honor. In the hands of a mentally deranged lunatic, that same loaded gun can wreak the kind of havoc we have seen recently all over our country. In neither instance can the loaded pistol be blamed, or praised, for the actions committed by its user. By the same token, consumed by a rational person, whiskey is not responsible for any crime. If, on the other hand, the whiskey is consumed by someone unable to control himself when he comes under its influence, then that person can cause the kind of devastation we hear about all the time, but it’s his fault, not the whiskey’s.
We have to fix the blame for tragedies of this sort where it belongs: on the person who commits the crime. Ban guns and the only people we’ll disarm will be honest citizens. Ban liquor and we’ll see a repeat of the prohibition years with honest people developing a contempt for the law.
Jim and Marilyn Prater
Fruitvale
We have to fix the blame for tragedies of this sort where it belongs: on the person who commits the crime. Ban guns and the only people we’ll disarm will be honest citizens. Ban liquor and we’ll see a repeat of the prohibition years with honest people developing a contempt for the law.
Jim and Marilyn Prater
Fruitvale
