From: John Vanderbur
Greensburg
It is always a mistake to equate academic intelligence with wisdom. Examples: Vietnam and Iraq wars; Congress of the United States. So, when someone tells you how smart they are, red flags should be popping up.
I don’t have a master’s degree or a four-year college degree and I have never been off this continent, so I hope that you don’t mind that this undereducated and untraveled person expresses an opinion concerning the recent letter of Mr. Knifley.
For a number of years now, there has been a small minority of people who are constantly expressing their opinions about their Second Amendment rights; their rights to carry guns in public; the need to have assault-type rifles to protect themselves and the general public from an oppressive government; the sky is falling; and on and on. This constant drone of improbable rhetoric is carefully cultivated by the gun industry, NRA, and the spineless politicians who worry most about their next election.
On July 20, 2012, a mentally disturbed James Holmes, armed with tear gas grenades, an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, made his assault on a theater in Aurora, Colorado. This resulted in the deaths of 12 people and the wounding, by gunfire, of 58 people. The fact that Holmes had all of that weaponry is a clear indictment of everything that allowed him to have it. When Knifley speaks of this and states, “Not knowing all of the facts” and “Some have suggested,” that means his conclusions are conjecture, not fact-based.
Businesses have a right to post no-gun signs on their properties. Do you remember the incident at Walmart several months ago when a gun went off after it had been accidentally dropped? That could have been a real tragedy. If a no-gun sign had been posted and the person carrying the gun had honored that posting, nothing would have happened. No-gun signs are good and where they exist, they must be honored.
Perhaps the most disparaging comments in Knifley’s article is his inferring that Mr. Scarbrough is bigoted. The Republic ended the comments section of articles online. One of the reasons why was that on the issue of gun control people launched degrading, condescending, even threatening remarks to the people who disagreed with them on gun issues. If you wanted to see bigotry, there it was in full color. Mr. Scarbrough’s articles pertaining to gun issues are well-written, civil and correct. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees his right to freedom of speech.
I recently had an 11-year-old boy tell me that he was told that Obama was going to end hunting. I just shook my head and told him that President Obama is a good man and what he was told is completely false.
The seeds of discontent are being sowed; hopefully that crop will never come to fruition.
