Editor:
Guns, guns and more guns ... here we go again. The second amendment will be defended and gun advocates will jump up and down defending their right to own a weapon regardless of its size or lethal power.
The revolutionary war went on for years with black powder and flintlock weapons. With today's weapons that war would be over in about an hour and a half. Do people really understand the size and scope of today's firepower?
I hear things like "we should arm the teachers". Wow, as a retired school teacher and former Federal Sky Marshall (that carried a weapon for three years), I for one can not imagine a school full of armed teachers. Think back to your school years ... picture your third-grade teacher. your eighth-grade teacher, your coach, vice principal, etc., with a .357 magnum in their desk drawer. They reach in there to get a pencil, accidentally hit the trigger and blow a hole in their desk (just the noise would soil their britches), and hopefully not hitting anyone in the class.
Unless school officials and law enforcement officials could absolutely certify that these teachers were trained in weapons handling and marksmanship. This idea of arming teachers is the most asinine idea being suggested.
I don't have the answer to the disaster in Sandy Hook and neither does anyone else, but we are a gun-happy nation and with all the tragic consequences of the deaths in places all over the nation we are paying the price for the absolute right to own a gun.
Bottom line folks, ask yourself, "do I really need a gun?"
Hal Graves
Sebring
Friday, January 04, 2013 - www.newssun.com/ltr-010413-Graves