Dear Editor,
How do you deal with a fantasy like “The Day the Guns Disappeared”?
Maybe facts will help. Back when I was young, the locks on doors mostly used skeleton keys, but the doors were not locked, and car/truck keys remained in the ignition. There were no school or church shootings, and no carjackings. Almost everyone had guns and kept them loaded and handy. That was the reason the Japanese didn’t invade our country after Pearl Harbor.
They knew our citizens had guns and knew how to use them. Protests were very few and always peaceful.
There were few gun restrictions, certainly not waiting periods and background checks. Killing one’s family or ex and committing suicide was unheard of.
In fact, when I was 14 years old, I got tired of the old 12-gauge shotgun busting my shoulder. I was making good money bagging groceries, and went across the street to the Ace hardware store to buy myself a sweet sixteen. The price was $75, and I put it on layaway.
After paying it off, the man brought out my semi-automatic gun and showed me how to put it together. He put the gun in a box and handed it to me with the receipt, saying Good hunting. My daddy had nothing to do with this transaction, although I did tell him what I was doing.
Today, the three of us would be in jail. In fact, guns were in the back of cars and trucks driven to school by students. What did we do wrong that is a criminal act and jail time today?
Well, the first thing we did wrong was to have the prima-donna athletes up on the stage in front of the whole school and told to bend over and grab their ankles. The assistant principal used a paddle to correct their wrongdoing. It generally corrected their behavior and ours. But I have to point out that parents knew of our wrongdoings before we got home from school, and we got the second, even worse punishment that would put them in jail today.
I might also point out that our parents made sure we did our homework and we were punished for bad grades. Most of us had part-time jobs, which gave us spending money and limited our time for mischief. We also had prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in the schools.
Good work, got promoted.
Bad work didn’t. Fancy that! The churches were full of families that were grateful to God; they lived in the best country in the history of man. Not perfect by a long shot, but still the best.
We didn’t leave taking care of the poor to the government. We took care of our own, so no one was starving. We paid the doctors, hospitals, and drug stores out of our pockets for the care we had to have. They weren’t big business then. We knew about cocaine, but who needed it? Coca-Cola gave us our pickup.
It seems Ace and the CDC think guns are a disease that can be cured by eliminating them, and it would make the world a peaceful place. Cain found a reason and a way to disturb the peace when guns were not yet invented.
It’s in the Book! And history proves the same thing. How can anyone think that by eliminating a specific weapon, we can have peace on earth? The attempt to eliminate the use of evil alcohol brought us the Mafia. How does that success support eliminating guns? The Mafia is still around to sell guns if they are eliminated, just like alcohol.
For over two thousand years, we have had the secret to peace on Earth, and yet we just don’t get the message. I know for a fact, the Bible doesn’t outlaw rocks and guns. It does teach that children and adults should take care of each other. We were pretty close to that back when I was young. Ace, I only wish eliminating guns would bring us peace, but that won’t make it happen.
Focus instead on what our schools and parents should be doing to bring you and me peace, what they should have been doing all along, until the government established the DOE and started giving grants with strings attached.
I hope that facts, rather than fantasy, will help everyone recognize the correct path to a peaceful future for us and our children. See you at Sunday School!
L. O. Cox, Jr., Greshamville