The President of the NRA has been making the rounds on various television stations and other programs, and they keep talking about the Second Amendment, that is, the right to bear arms. And I propose we take away the semiautomatic guns and give every member of the NRA, and especially the leadership of the NRA, the weapons the founding fathers were talking about.
Those weapons would be muzzleloaders, one-shot rifles, or muskets. They could have drills marching about with muskets on their shoulders. They could even have target practice, give awards for the best shots, dress up like the Continental soldiers of Washington’s army and call themselves “Defenders of the Constitution.”
The truth of the matter is the leadership of the NRA is not actually concerned about defending the Constitution. What they are concerned about is how they can brow-beat members of Congress and the Senate with their lobbying efforts and their right-wing money chest to make them a power in any election.
You don’t need a semiautomatic gun to protect your home from intruders or robbers. And you don’t need a 30-round magazine for your semiautomatic gun unless you intend to kill people.
In Newtown, Conn., there are 20, 6- or 7-year-olds who will never grow up to be nurses, teachers, artists, or firemen. Their futures were robbed from them and those who loved them by a crazy man who stole the guns after he killed his mother who owned a semiautomatic rifle. Why did she need all these weapons?
In all of the mass killings in recent memory … if the men who were holding the guns had been holding knives, baseball bats, or big rocks, they could have been stopped before all the people died.
No matter what the NRA says, no matter how many tired, old, white men from the conservative, political spectrum, no matter what Wayne LaPierre says, it’s a simple, mathematical situation. Arithmetic, if you will. Take away the guns that are not necessary for hunting, sport, and your personal safety, and you will take away the killings.
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
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