Letter: Listen to children’s voices on guns

Graphic by Lori Deaton

The mean old men who represent Western North Carolina in Congress — Congressmen Patrick McHenry and Mark Meadows and Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis — are committed to ensuring that our children will continue to be at risk when they go to school.

Mirroring their sadistic paymasters at the National Rifle Association, these men even suggest that shoehorning more guns into our schools is a reasonable response to school violence. Understand this: What compels these men are the continued obscene profits of gun manufacturers. Period. Given a choice between those profits and the lives of children, Burr, Tillis, Meadows and McHenry will always side with the guns.

We should all listen to the children now, not those pathetic apologists for the gun industry. The kids are right.

— Michael Carlebach
Asheville

Editor’s note: Xpress contacted the offices of McHenry, Meadows, Tillis and Burr for a response but received no replies as of press time. After print publication, Xpress received an emailed response from Tillis (which appeared to be auto-generated), to a summary of the points raised in Carlebach’s letter; it says in part:

“… My personal view is that addressing the underlying causes [of school shootings] and saving lives will require a combination of proactive, commonsense initiatives on the part of communities and federal, state and local governments.

At the federal level, Congress must focus on fixing a federal background check system that isn’t as effective as it needs to be. … By bolstering communication and coordination between relevant health and safety agencies, we can both help ensure that firearms do not fall into the wrong hands and protect the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That is why [I] co-sponsored S. 2135, the Fix NICS Act, which will help ensure state and federal authorities are reporting accurate information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. …

On March 23, President Trump signed the Fix NICS Act into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Spending Bill. I believe this legislation strikes the right balance to make our country safer from violence, while also being mindful of law-abiding Americans’ Second Amendment rights. In addition, the Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018 was also included in the FY18 Omnibus. This bill authorize $75 million for FY18, and $100 million annually for the next 10 years in grant money toward training students, school personnel and law enforcement to identify signs of violence and equipment to improve school security.

I welcome a discussion of ideas to make our communities safer from violence, as well as a thoughtful and compassionate discussion on ways to improve our mental health system. …”

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25 thoughts on “Letter: Listen to children’s voices on guns

  1. Lulz

    LOL maybe they should listen to gun owners lulz.

    LOL at people who lie to pass “laws”and ignore the one’s they don’t believe in. LOL at leftist who promote gun bans that also claim police are racist. Yet don’t explain why police should only have the guns.

    • Lulz

      LOL at any leftist who has said nobody wants to take your guns. And now we have “laws” being written that make gun owners into criminals overnight by possessing certain types. Maybe the kiddies should realize that turning people into “felons” via unConstitutional laws won’t bring them safety or security. It’ll bring anarchy and more violence. Especially as the state tries to make examples of people who don’t comply and murders them.

      Leftist aren’t your friends folks. They’re insane and want violence.

  2. Enlightened Enigma

    yeah, but ‘the kids’ don’t know about the 2nd amendment of the Constitution which government screwls don’t teach …

    • Lulz

      Or the 1st. But leftist are doing this stuff to replace the Constitution. After all when you all but I ignore it then you don’t need it. All part of the plan.

    • luther blissett

      Oh, they do. They know that the modern interpretation (and the NRA’s propaganda) is historically out on a limb. And they know about active shooter drills, and they’re going to vote to ensure that their kids don’t have the same experience. Get used to the future.

        • luther blissett

          Had the NRA existed in its current form in 1939, it would be arguing a constitutional necessity for everyday Americans to own fully-automatic Tommy guns, and so would some of the commenters here. Even Scalia in Heller wouldn’t endorse the NRA’s maximalism. Future’s coming.

          • Lulz

            LOL Miller was convicted of possessing a sawed off shotgun because it wasn’t in common use by the military.

            The Miller decision does in fact make the ban on machine guns illegal. Now either you have laws or you don’t. But you can’t ban anything when scrutinized CONSTITUTIONALLY. Nor can you contradict laws based on emotions.

          • luther blissett

            LOL what a maroon.

            In a better world, all kinds of guns would be banned because… well, look at the quality of people who think that they ought to be trusted implicitly with guns. They’re not the best people. You wouldn’t trust them to look after your houseplants. But they somehow accept that Tommy guns aren’t legal for the general public, just because they weren’t alive in the 30s.

            Future’s coming, though. Choo choo.

          • Peter Robbins

            Next they’ll be telling us that bazookas, flamethrowers and shoulder-held rockets are illegal, too. Will the insanity never end?

    • boatrocker

      Hah! Last I checked Civics classes are taught in Asheville public ‘screwls’ but Alex Jones is still
      considered fake news.

  3. Erle

    After first look at the comment above I thought that it was tongue in cheek. Apparently not.
    My experience with guns in public places was with carrying my first .22 single shot that I paid six dollars for, and took it home uncased on a public bus. The driver checked the breech and told me that I must theretofore use at least a soft sleeve to carry on public transport.
    We had no shootings then excepting the criminal element that was rare enough.
    My father traveled with his rifle team for hundreds of miles to attend competitions.
    I had an M-1 cal .30 battle rifle issued to me as a mid-teen as did all of my schoolmates. Not one in forty years was used against anyone.
    Go look at the drugging of children to find your links.
    22

    • Bright

      On target, Earle. Note how little these commenters are interested in kids. They’d rather wax politics and praise their expert solutions. Believe it or not, kids are connected to parents. Parents are supposed to guide kids and protect them. Kids and parents are connected…a hard thing to remember apparently. Parents who lack power and have to depend on their kids to protect them, is backwards. Parents seem to be too stupid to raise kids, or protect them. They throw children under the bus, then run away to be part of the GNP. Why pay everyone else to raise your kids…then complain because they don’t do a good job. Parents can be unique, if they want to be.

      • luther blissett

        “Note how little these commenters are interested in kids.”

        Oh, shush. A generation of kids after Columbine have grown up with active shooter drills and lockdowns in a place that should be considered safe. Those kids will be having kids of their own in the next ten years, and they are going to do whatever is in their power to ensure those kids don’t have the same experience. Boomers who whine about entitlement while systematically denying younger generations the things they took for granted are going to be surprised what happens once they can be outvoted.

    • luther blissett

      “My experience with guns in public places was with carrying my first .22 single shot that I paid six dollars for, and took it home uncased on a public bus. ”

      Sounds like you grew up in the era of segregated schools and separate water fountains. They don’t exist any more. Welcome to the 21st century. You’ll be surprised what it brings.

  4. NFB

    This is the post millennial generation — the generation the righties have been rubbing their hands together about predicting that they were going to be the most conservative generation since World War II.

    Yet, the mocking and ridicule they are getting from these same righties is radicalizing this generation and driving them in to the arms of the left. Keep it up and watch the “most conservative generation since World War II” become the most liberal.

    • Lulz

      LOL better hope they don’t find out how LIEberals mispemt their school safety funds. Problem with LIEberala is they have to LIE constantly. Those LIED catch up eventually. It’s like Wanda Green getting a raise during her final year. Even though the LIEberals on the board never once questioned her spending. And passed tax increases based on LIES. Or how many are finally waking up to the fact that city homeowners are being taxed to subsidize the rich lulz.

      • Enlightened Enigma

        remember everyone ‘Truth is treason in the Empire of Lies’ … Ron Paul.

  5. boatrocker

    Anybody on this goofy website ever read the 2nd Amendment in
    its entirety?

    “Well regulated militia”.
    Dropping of the mic just done happened here.

    Please elucidate, NRA.

  6. Stan Hawkins

    In the US we have many laws on the books. Politicians, elected officials, and government employees routinely choose to not enforce some laws. Some including citizens choose to disobey the laws blatantly as we stand by and watch as our national borders and schools are at perpetual risk.

    As the news is being fully revealed concerning the Parkland High School shooting, its seems that government and police procedures were not followed including lapses in officer protocols. Common sense actions alone may have prevented this horrific crime. How then are we to believe that a Federal, State, and Local bureaucracy can enforce new gun laws? We should not be surprised when they enlist the help of the liberal media and others to point the finger elsewhere. If you believe that a government bureaucracy is fully capable and “competent” to enforce new gun legislation or if a national gun registry is your goal, you may want to check out South Africa’s recent results in their 2000 legislation in the link just below:

    https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/91284/south-africa-is-the-second-worst-country-for-gun-deaths-in-the-world/

    There has been much debate as to whether the Jews and others in Nazi Germany, Poland, etc. would have been able to resist their systematic execution (millions), if not for Adolph Hitler’s actions in 1938 as to gun rights and gun confiscation. While that premise is usually considered doubtful, one should remember that it would be six years until the US would land at Normandy, and another year before the Nazi atrocities would stop. This, after the sacrifice of many American and allied soldiers.

    Consider this premise for a rebuttal of advocating for new gun laws or a US National Gun Registry. If the Jews and other citizens of Nazi Europe had been sufficiently armed, could it have been possible that their resistance would have put the spotlight on their plight to survive? Would this potential resistance have inspired the US and its allies to come to the rescue of the Jews and other citizens much earlier? Could the lives of many have been saved? Would American casualties have been less?

    Have our liberal friends in education really reviewed this history properly with our young people currently and rightfully voicing their opinions on the issue of guns in America? Have our young people been encouraged by our liberal friends in education to fully debate both sides of this issue in a structured debate format? Have they been encouraged to ask themselves these questions about the atrocities in Nazi Europe? And while I am at it, have our liberal friends in education encouraged our young people to debate this question? – – What is the difference in the value of the human life of a student at Parkland High School and the value of the unborn life of a human growing in a mothers’ womb? Could that answer be at the heart of some of our problems?

    And yes; why does the country South Africa have the second highest gun violence in the world after enacting legislation in 2000 for a national gun registry? Wasn’t that supposed to solve the problem?

    • Virginia Daffron

      Thank you, Mr. Hawkins, for clarifying your earlier post and adding your thoughtful comments to this discussion.

    • boatrocker

      Hmmm, armed Jews pre-emptively preventing the Holocaust.
      Does that also apply to First Nation/American Indians, African slaves,
      or is this just an isolated incedent?

      • Stan Hawkins

        Sure, good point. We can include those you mentioned as well as others. And just to reiterate, the premise was not that the Holocaust would have been prevented. What lives may have been saved was the premise.

        What about South Africa gun violence?

        Have our young people been truly educated to debate all sides of this issue, or are they just being used for the agenda du jour?

  7. boatrocker

    (Whispering in the NRA’s ear for their nightmares…)
    “Well regulated”….

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