Letter: Facts don’t support writer’s gun claims

From: Gregg Macklin

Columbus

William Scarbrough’s last letter on Feb. 14 is, at best, dishonest. He makes claims not backed up by facts.

One, a gun shop is required by federal law to run background checks on all sales. I do notice that Scarbrough does not name the gun shop, as he, in all likelihood, would be sued for making knowingly false statements about a specific business and the people running it.

However, in his statement about the Sandy Hook shooting, he makes two statements he should know are provably untruthful, but knowing he cannot be taken to court over this willful disregard of the established facts, he made them in the hopes that no one would challenge him on his misstatements.

His first statement is that semi-auto rifles were used. Sorry, but the facts are the rifles were not used and were still locked in the trunk of his car, after the shooter took his own life. No rifles were present within the school buildings. And no rifles, semi-auto or otherwise, were used in the shooting. And this is not the first time this fact has been pointed out to Scarbrough, leading one to believe that being knowingly untruthful is fine as long as his goals are reached.

In his second statement, he claims that there has been on average one school shooting a week since Sandy Hook. He states it in such terms that leads one to believe, falsely, that these shootings involved students doing the shooting, during school hours. The facts, which can be Googled, prove the claim as untruthful. The shootings involve police chasing adult criminals onto school grounds, students committing suicide on school grounds at all hours of the day and night. So, this careful wording by Scarbrough to paint schools as a modern-day OK Corral is, well, unresearched hearsay at best.

One more point, and to be clear on this point, I do not know Scarbrough’s stance on the right to choose, though I have asked. The anti-gun left makes its claims about the dangers of guns and the need to limit or ban them in the name of saving the children, then will advocate for abortion.

I applaud Mayor Kristen Brown for standing up for the U.S. Constitution and the limits it places on government with regard to our individual civil rights. We as a nation need more leaders like her.