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PAGE 9A
FORSYTHOPINION
Protect kids or
confiscate guns?
In days gone by, a
massacre of students like
the atrocity at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High
School would have
brought us together.
But like so many
atrocities before it, this
mass murder is tearing
us apart.
The perpetrator, the
sick and evil 19-year-old
who killed 17 innocents
with a gun is said to be
contrite.
Having confessed, he
faces life in prison. For
the next half-century,
Nikolas Cruz will be fed,
clothed, sheltered and
medicated at the expense
of Florida taxpayers,
including the families of
those he murdered.
Cruz’s punishment
seems neither commen
surate with his crimes
nor a deterrent for sick
and evil minds contem
plating another
Columbine.
It didn’t use to be this
way.
On Feb 15, 1933, anar
chist Giuseppe Zangara
tried to assassinate
President-elect Franklin
Roosevelt in Miami. His
arm jostled, he killed
instead Chicago Mayor
Anton Cermak. Five
weeks later, on March
20, 1933, Zangara died
in the electric chair.
Swift, sure and piti
less, but that legal justice
system worked.
With Cruz, the system
failed up and down the
line, -
Cruz should never
have been allowed to
purchase or possess a
gun. He was angry,
alienated, isolated.
Police had been to his
family home to deal with
complaints 39 times. Yet
he had no arrest record
when he purchased his
AR-15.
Classmates at Douglas
High had speculated that
if there ever were a
school shooting, Cruz
would be the one to do
it. The FBI was alerted a
month before that
Nikolas Cruz was a time
bomb ready to explode.
The NRA was not
responsible for the sys
tem-wide failure from
Douglas High to the FBIL.
As the NRA's Dana
Loesch told CPAC
Thursday:
“The government can’t
keep you safe and some
people want us to give
up our firearms and rely
solely upon the protec
tion of the same govern
ment that’s already failed
us numerous times to
keep us safe.”
__Asforthe AR-15,itis
the most popular rifle
sold. Five million to 8
million are in circula
tion. Veterans since
Vietnam have trained
with, and many fought
with, the Ml 6, which is
first cousin to the AR-15.
Veterans are among the
millions who own them.
While all agree
AR-15s should be kept
out of the hands of cra
zies like Cruz, the estab
lishment insists that it is
the gun that is the prob
lem.
We hear demands that
AR-15s be banned and
confiscated.
Proponemhould put
that proposition to a
‘yote. But a prediction:
‘The moment it is brought
up for a vote, sales of
AR-15s will explode, as
they have before. If the
m is banned, as
v was banned in
P‘MM millions of
will become law-break
ers,
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PATRICK BUCHANAN
Columnist
And who will barge
into America’s homes to
seize and collect the
rifles?
Moreover, if people
have decided to mass
murder classmates or co
workers, inviting “sui
cide by cop,” are they
going to be stopped from
acquiring a semiauto
matic by a Congressional
law?
Have our drug laws
halted drug use?
Many of the guns con
fiscated by police are in
the possession of thugs,
criminals and ex-cons
who have no legal right
to own them., Yet, if we
are going to prosecute
the illegal sale or trans
fer-of-weapons severely,
we will have hundreds of
thousands more in pris
ons, at a time when we
are instructed to empty
them of nonviolent
offenders.
As for mental illness,
it seems more prevalent
than it used to be, and
the numbers of those on
medication seems a
greater share of the pop
ulation.
Do doctors decide
which of their patients
are fit to own a gun, and
which are not? Should
doctors be held criminal
ly liable if they fail to
alert police and one of
their patients uses a gun
in a violent crime?
Who will maintain the
federal registry of the
mentally sick unfit to
own a firearm?
The anger and anguish
of those who lost family
or friends in this atrocity
is understandable. But
passion is not a substi
tute for thought.
There are twice as
many guns in America as
there were just decades
ago. And a primary rea
son people acquire them
is because they believe
they need them to protect
themselves and their
families, and they no
longer trust the govern
ment to protect them.
They view the demand
for banning and confis
cating specific weapons
as a first step down the
inexorable road that ends
in the disarmament of
thepeople
Most mass shootings
take place in gun-free
zones, where crazed men
of murderous intent
know their chances of
maximizing the dead and
wounded are far better
than in attacking a police
station.
Our embassies are
defended by Marines
with Ml6s. Security
guards with guns defend
banks and military bases,
presidents and politi
cians,
The best way to pro
tect kids in schools may
be to protect schools,
and run down and incar
cerate the known crimi
nals and crazies who are
the primary threats.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the
author of 8 new book,
“Nixon's White House
Wars: The Battes That
Made and Broke 8
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Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
What can we do to make a difference?
The word “ponder” is defined
as: “reflect (upon or over); consid
er deeply.”
So I suspect that is what we
have been doing over the last few
weeks and months. The latest in
school shootings, teenagers killed
in car wrecks, and children and
their mothers being abused and
killed, all have caused the word
“ponder” to come to my mind
many times, ;
I don’t keep my head in the
sand, I watch the news, read news
papers and listen to the opinions
of other people who are supposed
ly much smarter than me. I put
some thought into what 1 see, hear
and learn while trying to make
sense of all that is happening in the
world today.
1 don’t agree always with the
newscast nor do I close my mind
to those people and their opinions
on what I should hear and believe.
Neither do I take things at face
value and think if a reporter says it
or writes it then they must always
provide us with the truth. I no lon
ger take for the truth any “anony
mous source” because I could be
one of those.
When I begin to ponder what is
going on in the world today I won-
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, p‘ i
JULIANNE BOLING
Columnist
der how the Greatest Generation is
handling our news. I wonder how
they handled the wars and the fight
for equal rights in the *sos and
'6os. I wonder if they ever became
discouraged when the daily reports
of casualties hit the newsstands. |
ponder if my own parents were
confused by what was happening
in our small town in the 19605.
I know my grandparents worried
daily about their son on a mine
sweeper ship in the Pacific. | know
there were continuous prayers for
uncles on Omaha Beach and the
days were long and tiresome for
women and children going without
the necessities so those fighting a
war had what they needed.
I ponder how parents cope when
their child turns to drugs and vio
lence. I ponder how a person
keeps trying to make a relation
ship work only to realize they are
the only one trying. I ponder how
parents survive losing a child at
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opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
birth or cope with their child hav
ing cancer or a disability. I ponder
how parents are coping with the
deaths of their teenagers when they
believed they were safe at school.
Then you ask the questions:
“What is the answer; what can we
do to make a difference; is there a
way to keep children safe from
harm?”
I don’t have an answer, just the
questions that seem to have so
many solutions or no solutions at
all.
In my pondering moments I real
ize that the word “coping” comes
to mind. Next the words are reality,
patience, concern and responsibili
ty.
Then I again repeat Voltaire’s
words from the 14th century:
“Things may not be as they should
be but they are as they are!” His
phrase continues: “In this the best
of all possible worlds.”
Is this the best of all possible
worlds? At the moment, I don’t
think so.
Julianne Boling’s column appears
each Sunday in the Forsyth County
News.