Today, while Congress was away and the nation still remembering the tragedy of
Jonesboro, President Clinton seized the moment to strengthen his attack on the Second
Amendment. His efforts to ban guns serve only outlaws and further open the doors for
future government tyranny.Too often, in recent years, families have had to face the
loss of their children to a mass murderer in their school. Let us remember that banning
guns for adults in schools is the same as telling criminals that we will not stop them if
they want our children. Last October, an assistant principal stopped one mass murderer
when he retrieved a gun from his car. How many children could have been saved if he had
the weapon in his office or on his person? The president is wrong to let it remain
"open season" on our children in schools.
It is a distraction to say "military weapons … were never meant for a day in
the country." Those that founded our country knew otherwise. Military weapons in the
hands of citizens ensure that the government is subject to the citizens and not the other
way around. Hitler knew this and provided "safe streets" as a precursor to
government domination. We must not set ourselves up for the same kind of domination in
this generation or the next.
The Second Amendment states "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed." By limiting the types of arms that a citizen can buy, President
Clinton is narrowing the Second Amendment. Concealed Carry laws have been shown to reduce
the murder rate by over 1,500 lives per year. Law-abiding private citizens prevent over 2
million crimes per year with their own weapons.
We must never give the criminal, or a potential runaway government, the upper hand.
Congress must reverse the restrictions on law-abiding citizens and shift the penalties to
the criminals.
