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COMMENTARY
To the editor:
I wanted to express my disappoint
ment in your running the screed written
by Price R. Potter concerning gun con
trol. Rather than his responding ratio
nally to an earlier commentary by Dan
Whisenhunt, it was purely an ad homi-
nem attack on Mr. Whisenhunt. Un
fortunately, this sort of response is all
too common within the gun control de
bate.
Admittedly, I am biased in favor of
more control of the type of guns that
people can buy and our deplorably in
adequate means of stopping those who
should not have guns from accessing
them. This bias comes from my pro
fessional experience. I provide consul
tation to major (Fortune 100) compa
nies when they have a concern about an
employee — or ex-employee — becom
ing violent. And unfortunately, I have
attended funerals of people who were
killed following what otherwise would
have been an insignificant quarrel.
I would hope that other commen
taries you choose to print are more rea
soned, measured and thoughtful.
Carol H. Beavers
To the editor:
I was somewhat taken aback by the
commentary “Cars cause more harm
than firearms do” in your Jan. 25-Feb. 7
Letters to the Editor section. This com
mentary was in response to an earlier ar
ticle written by Dan Whisenhunt.
I had to review the article that Mr.
Whisenhunt wrote, in order to try and
determine what iset off his detractor.
There was nothing particularly pro
vocative in the article by Mr. Whisen
hunt; in fact his closing comment was,
“If we don’t begin having a construc
tive discussion about this, that day may
come sooner than any of us would like.”
In response to the call for “construc
tive criticism,” the commentator last
week attacked Mr. Whisenhunt on a
personal level. “Squeamish progressives
and weak-willed liberals,” “his pretty lit
tle head,” “hysteria, hand-wringing and
bed wetting” were some of the unfor
tunate comments directed toward Mr.
Whisenhunt.
This is a prime example of what is
wrong in 2013 America. Instead of hav
ing a dialogue with a healthy give and
take of ideas and solutions, we have in
stead sunk to the lowest common de
nominator. We excoriate our politicians
for being implacable and taking absolute
stances instead of reaching a consensus,
but the reality is that our representatives
truly reflect what we as a society have
become. If someone states an opinion
contrary to our own, they must be im
beciles and subjected to incivility.
I do not blame the author, he is
clearly an intelligent man with a pas
sion for his position. I have nothing
but disdain for your newspaper for
printing an attack piece rather than
a thoughtful commentary. Was that
commentary the best one submitted
to your newspaper? I suspect it was
chosen to stir the pot and create more
controversy.
You are part of the problem and
contribute to the “reality show” hos
tile mentality that is slowly choking us
all and leading to the dumbing down
of America.
Shame on you.
Chris Arapoglou
To the editor:
Mr Potter’s call for logic rather than
emotion is neither logical nor unemo
tional. Quite the contrary. What could
be more illogical than comparing cars to
guns? Do we have other uses for cars
than killing things?
But the greatest contradiction is the
totally emotional, irrational argument
that we need guns to protect us from
government. Talk about fearful bed wet
ting devoid of reason!
If this were the case, Mr. Potter needs
RPGs, tanks, drones and F-l6s, not to
mention 50-100,000 like-minded com
rades. Dispensing with all of the fear
mongering and name-calling, there are
only a few facts (facts meaning items
that are actually true, supported by ev
idence rather than ideas that have been
repeated so many times that many peo
ple think they are true) related to this
subject.
Countries with the closest cultural,
language and religious ties to the U.S.
include Canada, Australia and the UK.
Their gun death rates compared to the
U.S. are 1/5, 1/10 and 1/40 respective
ly. Why? Go look at their guns laws and
nobody would ever call any of these
people bed wetters.
Isn’t it interesting that those scream
ing the loudest about freedom and liber
ties are the first to promote government
control of women’s bodies, corporate
subsidies and bogus obstacles to voting.
If the gun dispute were a formal, in
terscholastic debate with rules requiring
evidence, logic and unemotional dis
course, the gun lobby would lose that
debate hands down.
R. Bays
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