Lie Number One:
On Saturday my local South Bend Tribune printed the letter titled Gun Control as follows:
It has now been more than eight years since South Bend police officer Nick Polizzotto was gunned down at the Wooden Indian Motel. It was April of 2007. You may remember that someone was reported shooting wildly along Lincoln Way East, and Polizzotto had gone to investigate when he was killed.
It turned out that the man who shot him was mentally ill, and had at one time been committed to a mental hospital. He purchased the gun at a gun show, held at the 4-H fairgrounds. Certain gun purchases at gun shows don’t require a background check. For this mentally ill individual, the gun was sold without ever checking on his background.
The shooter’s brother has stated that he never should have been allowed to purchase a firearm. And yet he did, and he still could today. I, for one, will not support any candidate for office who does not support universal background checks before a gun can be purchased. May I suggest that you consider doing the same?
I felt that I had to address the statement (with Dana Loesch in my head) keep in mind that letters are limited to 200 words.
Gun Control myths
The Voice of The People recently printed a letter titled “Gun Control” that contained some very misleading information. The letter writer stated that “It turned out that the man who shot him was mentally ill, and had at one time been committed to a mental hospital. He purchased the gun at a gun show, held at the 4-H fairgrounds. Certain gun purchases at gun shows don’t require a background check. For this mentally ill individual, the gun was sold without ever checking on his background.” When I read it I inherently knew that with all the myths the gun grabber propagate that there had to more to the story.
It only took me a short period of time and an internet search to refresh my memory, the man that committed this heinous act was Scott Barnaby who bought the gun through Ronald Wedge, a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), however Mr. Wedge later pleaded guilty and received a ten month sentence for the sale because it was done without conducting the background check as required by law.
My question to the letter writer is if the sell of the gun was done illegally what does he suggest for the solution maybe a double secret law?
Mark Watkins
Lie Number Two:
When you ask the statists why Chicago which has some of the most restrictive gun laws but is always near the top city of per capita murders they will most often place the blame on the ease of buying guns in neighboring states. In fact President Obama just stated as part of his speech to the 122nd Annual IACP (International Association of Police Chiefs) Conference in Chicago stated:
There are those who criticize any gun safety reforms by pointing to my hometown as an example. They say, well, look, Chicago had a spike in homicides this year, they’ve got gun safety laws, so this must be proof that tougher gun safety laws don’t help, maybe make things worse. The problem with that argument, as the Chicago Police Department will tell you, is that 60 percent of guns recovered in crimes come from out of state. You’ve just got to hop across the border. As I said before, it is easier for a lot of young people in this city and in some of your communities to buy a gun than buy a book. It is easier in some communities to find a gun than it is to find some fresh vegetables at a supermarket. (Applause.) That’s just a fact.
Being a resident of Northern Indiana, every time I see statements like this I get the urge to travel to my local Seven-Eleven and check out the shelf directly behind those appetizing rolling hot dogs and pick out my next gun. I’ve had by eye on a Bond Arms gun but I’m holding out for a bogo sale.
This argument is easily dispelled in 2013 South Bend had 9 murders working out as 8.9 per 100,000 while in Chicago there were 414 or 15.2 per 100,000 citizens. So far this year in the “black lives matters” anti-police era there have already been 377 gun murders in Chicago.
markE watkins 