Date: Sat, 30 May 1998 11:40:51 -0700
From: Jack Perrine <[J--k] at [minerva.com]>
To: "'[p--t--n] at [utdallas.edu]'" <[p--t--n] at [utdallas.edu]>
Subject: blame the killer and not the gun

Blame the Killer, Not the Gun
Saturday, May 30, 1998; Page A17 
WP

 My nephew was one of the kids shot at Thurston High School in Springfield,
 Ore. He took a bullet in the arm. Seeing him on the evening news being
 carted away on a gurney was difficult. Also upsetting is how much of the
 media, the president and other politicians are again blaming guns and gun
 ownership for the recent rash of school shootings. 

 The bullet that tore through my nephew's arm was shot from a gun that was
 aimed by a deranged killer. The killer is to blame, not the gun. The guns used
 in the Oregon shooting were illegally obtained. The killer premeditated the
 actions he took that morning. 

 As youths in a Los Angeles suburb in the '60s and '70s, my peers and I had
 access to guns. None had trigger locks, and we knew where they were kept.
 We knew that to aim at an innocent victim and pull the trigger was murder,
 and we did not conceive of using a gun in a fight. I never heard of school
 shootings while growing up. Something is changing in society, and it is not
 the availability of weapons to kids.

 According to family friends, the parents of the killer asked the authorities to
 keep him in custody the day before the shooting. The killer had brought a
 gun onto campus and been caught. The killer had a troubled and violent past,
 and the parents knew the killer had crossed the line. The authorities refused
 to keep him. The parents are now dead, as are two students. It happens over
 and over; criminals are released and continue to commit crimes.

 Place blame on the individual or society, but not on the existence of guns.
 Providing "safety" with more restrictive gun-control laws is a feel-good
 fallacy that has failed in the past.

 -- Ricky Montgomery

 In its passionate editorial May 23 about gun peddlers and the gun-money
 lobby, your paper overlooks the overwhelming influence and funding of
 violence peddlers and the entertainment-money lobby. The NRA teaches
 firearms safety and responsibility. The entertainment industry teaches
 firearms violence and irresponsibility. For "lavish spending" and "warped
 doctrines" regarding guns, the TV and film media take the awards by a giant
 margin. Where is your paper's passion on the role of its media colleagues?

 -- George F. Steeg

 Let's deconstruct your arguments for gun control in the editorial "Guns
 Ablaze in the Schools":

 The lifesaving importance of limits on the number of handguns that may be
 purchased in a given time period: 

 In all of the recent cases, none of the handguns used had been purchased
 just prior to the incident. 

 Of careful licensing and regulating of gun dealers:

 The weapons used in these events were legally purchased, then removed
 without the knowledge of their adult purchasers. In Springfield, the legal
 purchaser was murdered in his home by the shooter. 

 Of requirements that guns be made more difficult for children to find: 

 As shown recently in a film by the Denver police, the best method for
 dealing with a kid finding a firearm was to train the child about its power of
 life and death and instruct the child to report finding a weapon to an adult. 

 Of waiting periods:

 Does your idea of a waiting period cover the time it takes for all children in
 the household or the neighborhood to become 21?

 Of thorough checks of criminal records when guns are being bought: 

 None of the adults who purchased these weapons has been reported to have
 a criminal record.

 Of banning military assault-style weapons that have no useful purpose in a
 civilian setting:

 None of the weapons used in any recent events was a military-like weapon,
 with the exception of the rifle used in Jonesboro. It was a copy of the type
 of bolt-action rifles used by the United States in World War I.

 The editorial states: "Is it perhaps possible that easy access to weaponry
 may have something to do with the increase in the number of students who
 were expelled from schools last year for showing up with guns?"

 Thirty-five years ago I was 15. In 1962 you could buy the same kinds of
 guns used in these terrible events through the mail. Nobody I can remember
 did.

 Kids need to be made to understand that they are accountable for their
 actions -- including dealing with their personal problems -- and society at
 large must work toward that end.

 -- George H. Foster