Though I appreciate the response to my opposition to posting no guns signs (“Amazed at human behavior ‘experts,'” Letters, Jan. 29), the writer is totally wrong. I said nothing about being a human behavior expert. I merely stated that criminals will not heed a no-guns sign.
How and when a crazy or a drunk person wields a gun is not the point. Saying in most cases a person with a gun will not prevent another from acting out in violence is opinion. Saying I do not believe Texas has the lowest crime rate is opinion. Saying that concealed carry will not reduce crime is just opinion.
Where are the facts? Here’s a fact. Gun violence has risen on Chicago’s South Side because there are more guns in criminal’s hands. Unreasonable gun control laws make it easier for these criminals to act out.
I agree with the NRA that there should be personnel in schools who are armed and trained in the use of a gun. But then to say they also need extensive training in handling a crisis situation is ridiculous. That’s what a SWAT team is for. Armed school personnel are the first line of defense before the SWAT team arrives.
By that line of thinking lay people should not be trained in CPR since they are not professional physicians. Yet CPR is the first line of emergency treatment before the paramedics can arrive.
Concealed carry may not automatically stop crime but it is proven to be a deterrent. Not knowing that someone may be armed inside may make a criminal think twice before he acts out.
The writer shows his ignorance of guns by using the words automatic weapons and assault weapons to scare the public. These rifles are neither. Automatic means you squeeze the trigger once and as long as you hold it down, bullets are fired. Only the military have these. They are called machine guns.
Rifles sold to the public are semi-automatic. That means you squeeze the trigger once and one bullet fires. You must squeeze the trigger every time to fire a bullet. This can be done rapidly to empty a clip. But it is neither automatic nor assault.
The bottom line is posting a no gun sign does not stop crime. It encourages it. Signs do not prevent deaths. People do. The writer also fails to provide a solution to gun crime bemoaning our obsession with guns has not solved the problem.
So what would you do? Does one just call 911, wait, grab a knife, hide and pray not to be found? A speeding bullet is much faster than a thrown knife, if you knew how to throw one. Concealed carry levels the playing field, giving those in a school, a business or a home an initial fighting chance when a violent person acts out. It provides an opportunity to save lives before the police can arrive. Without concealed carry there is no opportunity.
Finally, I heartily agree with one sentence and I quote, “Liberal thinking has little to do with common sense thinking.”
I believe the writer has shot himself in the foot with that statement. My point is made exactly.
Dr. Gary Karwoski
Brookfield
