Regarding David Newman's July 8 letter ("Guns in restaurants explosive idea"): To answer his first question, "What idiot ... made it legal to carry concealed weapons ...?" The people of the United States upheld that right in 1791 when the Second Amendment was ratified. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. We all need to be more aware of our rights -- not just the Second or First amendments, either. What about the federal government's total disregard for the 10th -- which, by the way, was a major cause of the Civil War?
Another query of Mr. Newman's was "When did restaurants become so threatening ...?" Does anyone remember Luby's Cafeteria? The McDonald's massacre? Yes, these are rare occurrences. Yet, if one law-abiding citizen were to have a weapon when the nut-of-the-month had decided to go on a killing rampage, fewer lives would have been lost. In fact, many of the survivors of the Texas shooting stated that very same idea. But our fine friends in the major media outlets would not publish their opinions.
The truth is, the citizen who goes through the trouble of a background check, paying the fees and filing the proper documents to be within the law isn't the one we need to fear. No, the one to fear is the guy who has been carrying a weapon illegally into your establishment all along. This "new" concealed-carry law only broadens our protection.
I give everyone my word. I shall never threaten anyone because my service was bad, with anything other than a smaller tip. On the other hand, if Mr. Wacko starts shooting the place up, please forgive the well-placed projectile in his center mass.
For anyone wanting to know just how far away from free we have become as a nation, visit www.constitutionfacts.com for a pocket copy of The U.S. Constitution and Fascinating Facts About It.
Douglas Carter, Augusta
Comments
The statistics prove that the need for guns in restaurants and BARS is minute. This really sounds more like "small" man syndrome. The smaller a man is endowed, the more the need for a big gun. How about self-defense courses? I will defend the right to own and carry a weapon, but this is ridiculous.
What is ridiculous is always having to defer to someone with a gun intent on killing you and yours because he can...I would rather have a gun and possibly prevent a monster from mass murders than to throw words or stones at them....:-)
doug, you & danny should meet for coffee,,, i'll buy - well written, bud !,,, mr. newman doesn't, evidently, read up on his statistics.
GACopperhead, I guess you would carry a knife to a gun fight, right?
Well said Mr. Carter. With a permit, people should be allowed to carry at all times. This would stop many crimes because the crooks wouldn't know who was armed and who wasn't.
Even if I don't need a gun while I'm _in_ the restaurant, I certainly needed it while walking from the restaurant back to my car. My risk of facing a mugger is no less than the risk of a fire or collision against which my fire extinguisher and seat belts protect me.
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual ... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." - Representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX.
Rep. Hupp lost her father and mother in the Luby's Cafeteria shooting in Texas, there were a total of 22 citizens who died in the "Gun Free Zone" that day. She left her firearm in her vehicle that day in obeying the law. A gun free zone is actually a "Criminal Empowerment Zone", in which the criminal has free reign to kill and injure at will.
"I say carry wherever you go regardless of whether it is legal or not. You don't need a "license" to save your own life. Americans are born with a CCW license." - Josh Bergman.
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