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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

Things Will Get Worse

Right-wing Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme court have finally prevailed on gun control, at least for now. I have enjoyed the letters in your paper from local gun owners celebrating their victory.

My fellow Americans, you finally have the freedom to settle things your way.

Your boss wants to fire you? Let him know you won't tolerate it. Wife wants a divorce? Not so fast, honey. Don't like the way that guy in the grocery store is looking at you? Now you can confront him, knowing that if things get out of hand you have your handgun to back you up.

The 5-4 bare majority in the Supreme Court has given us a great gift, but I can think of 800,000 people who won't be able to celebrate with us.

They are the victims of gun violence in the United States since 1980, easily outnumbering the American dead from all wars in American history in the last hundred years combined.

And few were criminals killed by law-abiding citizens. Most were gun owners, family members, ex-wives, neighbors and innocent victims who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

SCOTT COCHRAN

Tampa

Basic Rights Upheld

Congratulations to the Supreme Court for upholding one of the most basic fundamental rights of the citizenry.

I would argue that when the founders wrote the Second Amendment, they were attempting to ensure an even more basic right than the citizens' right to self-defense against criminals.

It was intended to ensure the citizens' rights to self-defense from their own government, should it become too oppressive.

The founders had lived through a revolution against an oppressive government. Remember that the "shot heard round the world" at Lexington and Concord occurred because the king sent his troops to confiscate the colonist's guns and ammunitions stored there.

So for all the revolutionary talk before Lexington and Concord, the Revolution, in the sense of an armed uprising against the forces of the king, actually came to fruition when the king sent his troops to take away the colonists' means of defense against his tyranny.

I am sure this lesson was not lost on the Founders.

LOWELL WILSON

New Port Richey

Won't Be 'Wild West'

A careful reading of this decision should dispel all of the "Wild West" scenarios predicted by its detractors.

It will take years to smoke out the handful of cities that are still clinging to handgun prohibition, and even when that happens, the guns will likely be heavily regulated. The United States has already been trending to allow concealed carry and more than 30 states now have it.

If the ruling had gone the other way, it might have been a psychological setback for the pro-gun side, but little else would have changed.

I predict that few gun laws will actually be overturned. The reason it took so many years to clarify the Second Amendment is because the United States has traditionally been gun friendly.

Relatively few people have actually been oppressed by anti-gun legislation up until very recently. Far from being crazy or out of touch, Scalia's decision left plenty of leeway for upholding regulation of firearms. It is comforting to know, however, that they cannot ever be prohibited.

LEONARD MARTINO

Tampa

Court Finally Gets It

The Supreme Court has finally decided the Constitution means exactly what it says regarding "The Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Wow! What a surprise; the court can actually read.

Now maybe they can decide Article Four, Section Four in the body of the Constitution - not passed later as was the Bill of Rights - means what it says, "The Government shall Protect the States from invasion ... and domestic violence." Some 20 million illegal aliens is proof the United States is not doing what the Constitution requires!

When can we get a ruling on making the government do the job its own contract with citizens requires? If the government doesn't comply with the Constitution, why should we? It will be nice not having to pay taxes. and only taking from the government like the illegals do.

MARK GROVES

Brandon

Judges Aren't Bad Guys

Regarding "Judge's Decision Ignores Reality" (Letters, June 30):

Apparently, the writer believes a reality in which such things as the factory shooting spree she described could be eliminated by judicial decree. Erasing the "guns-at-work" legislation would no more stop workplace shootings than the longstanding law against murder can stop murder.

Please note, for example, the number of homicides in Florida is greater than the number of troops killed in Iraq over the same period. A more effective deterrent would be an awareness that the "bad guys" are not lawmakers or judges or citizens seeking safety, but the shooters themselves. I say this because I noted the writer had nothing bad to say about the shooter except for the excuse of getting mad at work, which she describes as normal. In my reality, excuses for murderers are not acceptable.

MICHAEL QUEENAN

St. Petersburg

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