Dear editor:
Every time I work the polls, I hear from many people, when asked to show a photo ID, the typical response is that everyone should do so in order to vote. We have rules and regulations concerning the privilege, not the right, the privilege to drive on public streets. We have rules and regulations about what you can or cannot do on your "own" property. We regulate the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceuticals, legal and otherwise.
And yet, we refuse to regulate the sale and distribution of guns and ammunition. No one dies if they don't vote or do vote. People die if we don't regulate drugs and the sale thereof. People die when our vehicles are not maintained in a safe and responsible manner. We are liable if someone is hurt through our negligence, therefore, we are "required" to carry liability insurance on our vehicles. And yet we allow people to kill unrestricted without knowing who they are, what their motives are, what their mental or physical health conditions are with guns that our Founding Fathers would not recognize if they were here today.
We cannot keep any details on any application for a gun longer than 24 hours. We feel it is an infringement on our "right to bear arms." But the Constitution refers only to a "well regulated militia." No where does it say we have the right to own and distribute without regulating gun ownership. Yet the NRA uses that misbegotten philosophy to gin up resistance to any form of regulation. They know (the guys at the top) that selling guns is highly profitable. Unrestricted selling is insanely profitable.
I wonder how many more mass killings will it take before the "responsible" gun owners say they don't mind showing a picture ID to buy a gun? It is only when they say no to the NRA and demand that gun ownership requires knowledge, responsibility, traceability and accountability that these reprehensible acts of random violence will cease. Putting the onus on the victims to force some kind of restrictions on gun ownership is a day late and a dollar short. The gun owners have to start taking responsibility for these deaths. They have to face the parents and children of these acts of violence because they are the ones keeping regulations from being passed.
Judy Ladd
Hot Springs
Editorial on 10/04/2015