Newspaper Page Text
COMMENTARY
Cars cause more harm
than firearms do
To the editor:
Mr. Dan Whisenhunts commen
tary on gun control [Reporter Newspa
pers, Jan 11-24] is summed up in one
quote... “A right to life without feeling
the need to arm myself everywhere I go
deserves equal consideration.” In other
words, Mr. Whisenhunt feels scared be
cause Americans can own firearms and
he really wants to feel safe.
In his mind (and other squeamish
progressives and weak-willed liberals),
his emotions trump my right to one of
the basic tenets of natural law, the right
to self-defense. But what is even worse,
is that it is a selective and highly irratio
nal emotion on his part.
If his concern for his health and well
being were accurately placed, he would
demand that cars be pulled from the
road and banned forever, as far more
deaths, injuries and overall misery is
caused by auto accidents. His chances
of becoming one of those traffic statistics
is far greater than ever even seeing a pri
vate citizen with a gun in public, much
less ever being hit by a stray or inten
tional bullet.
If he used a little more logic and a
great deal less emotion, he might just
cry himself to sleep every night worrying
about two tons of steel whizzing by his
pretty little head hundreds (if not thou
sands) of times a day. But he doesn’t, be
cause he feels OK about it.
The comparatively high likelihood
of death or dismemberment by driving
(which is not a protected constitutional
right) is fine, but lawful gun ownership
by lawful citizens (which just happens to
be the Second Amendment to the Con
stitution’s Bill of Rights) is cause for hys
teria, hand-wringing and bed wetting.
It just doesn’t ring true... because it
isn’t.
This is a political dogma, not a safe
ty issue, plain and simple. Ill-informed
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
E-mail letters to
editor@reporternewspapers.net
anti-gun advocates want us to ignore the
vast experience of history about oppres
sive governments and tyrannical rulers.
Instead, people like this want to pretend
that an all-powerful government is go
ing to take care of their every need by
day, coddle them asleep at night and be
nevolently nurture them from cradle to
grave.
But human nature hasn’t changed in
thousands of years of recorded history
and the cliche is still true that power cor
rupts and absolute power corrupts ab
solutely. The Second Amendment was
written to give armed citizens the pow
er to not only defend themselves, but to
keep a power-hungry government from
oppressing them and to physically and
forceably resist that entity if necessary.
And it is true that those who ignore
history are doomed to repeat it. Ask
the Poles, Jews and eastern Europeans
during WWII, ask the Russians during
Stalin’s purges, ask the Chinese during
Mao’s rule, ask Cambodians about Pol
Pot, ask the black man during the re
pressive Jim Crow era and ask every oth
er disarmed people throughout history.
The disastrous results were always the
same when a government succeeded in
removing firearms from the hands of the
ordinary citizen.
So please, I am unmoved by Mr.
Whisenhunts need to feel good. I’d
rather live with him being irrationally
uncomfortable than for all of us losing
our freedoms and liberties because we
were too weak to defend them.
Price R. Putter
Developers like city’s plans
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
touches Hammond Drive near Roswell
Road and the Sandy Springs Plaza sits
on Roswell at Johnson Ferry Road.
Sandy Springs City Council ap
proved a redevelopment plan in De
cember. Under the plan, future develop
ment will move the center of city life to
what has traditionally been considered
the heart of the community along Ro
swell Road between Hammond Drive
and Sandy Springs Circle.
The plan seeks to make the city more
walkable and provides for a mix of uses,
expands green space and seeks revisions
to the city’s zoning code to achieve the
desired downtown aesthetic.
Telesca spoke in support of the plan
at a December Sandy Springs City
Council meeting and said recently that
he plans to add some luxury multi-fam
ily housing into the mix.
He said the plan will increase the val
ue of real estate around the downtown
area.
“It makes sense for the future of San
dy Springs and we want to be a part of
that,” he said.
Andre Koleszar, vice president and re
gional officer for Regency Centers, not
ed that the plan’s implementation could
take decades.
But knowing there’s a plan was a plus
for the company, he said.
“What Sandy Springs envisions gives
us solace that we’re going to be part of
... Sandy Springs for a long time to
come,” he said.
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