I am responding to our resident socialist/progressive Richard Nielsen’s recent letter (Guns: Where Will It End?, July 1). We know a large number of the Democratic Party is socialist. Thank you, Bernie Sanders.
So Mr. Nielsen writes that the NRA and the Republican Congress and Senate are responsible for Omar Mateen, never mind he’s a Jihad terrorist. Disregard that Obama let eight high-profile terrorists out of Gitmo, and that he’s letting in large numbers of illegals and refugees from terrorist regions of the Middle East. Oh no, Mr. Nielsen, that means nothing.
He says the FBI was investigating Mateen, but for some reason took him off their lists. And when the gun store owner called and told them he was trying to buy an automatic rifle, they never responded back. Great job, FBI!
Some of the facts you left out while praising the FBI.
You said we need more gun laws. Really? What about the laws forbidding cocaine and heroin, neither of which are grown here. You can’t buy any of that in the U.S., can we, Mr. Nielsen? No, there’s too many laws against it. And what about all the laws to prevent us from buying prescription drugs. Can’t get oxycodone, Vicodin and hydrocodone, can we, Mr. Nielsen? Not without a prescription, there’s laws against that.
You gave us statistics on murders each year, and how many with guns (98 percent illegally purchased, I might add), and most of them in cities with the strictest gun laws (i.e., Chicago). And as long as we’re talking about how great those laws have worked, did you know that 47,000 people died of a drug overdose last year? According to statistics, that’s an all-time high — and that’s with a narcotics unit in every local police department, plus the DEA. I don’t understand it, Mr. Nielsen, there’s so many laws against it. Of course, you leftists are trying to legalize it.
So tell me, Mr. Nielsen, I believe there are laws against murder, rape, assault, etc., so naturally, it doesn’t happen. If we could just make a law against automatic weapons, the bad guys could never get them. Right, Mr. Nielsen?
But… maybe if a few of those people in the Pulse nightclub were carrying legal guns, Mateen would have been shot dead instead of walking around from room to room executing defenseless victims.
Did you ever notice, Mr. Nielsen, these psychos always target gun-free zones. Thank God you socialists haven’t disarmed the police yet. Good guys with guns is always the answer.
So, let me conclude by saying that there are millions of legal gun owners, both Republican and Democrat. The Second Amendment is not number two by accident. Our forefathers believed it was important, right behind freedom of speech and freedom of the press. There will always be those who use those freedoms to commit crimes. That doesn’t mean we should give up those freedoms. Punish those who abuse our freedoms, not the law abiding. When you live in a country with our freedoms, there will always be people who hate us and want to destroy us. We all know that people who hate us and want to destroy us will find a way.
And please don’t give me any tripe that we deserve it. People risk their lives every day to come to this country.
So remember, if someone wants a gun, they’ll get it, one way or another, and if someone wants cocaine or heroin, there’s plenty to be had. By the way, gun sales doubled in Orlando after that shooting, and I’m sure they weren’t all Republicans.
Thomas Euell, Wellington
Thou Shall Not Kill