Gun control won't work

Whenever there is a mass killing like the recent elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, some people want to get rid of guns that can kill. What they forget is that guns can also actually save lives. Though more gun control is emotionally appealing, it will not work because it ignores the life-saving and crime-deterring nature of guns and it would not actually reduce crime.

Gary Kleck, professor of criminology at Florida State University, examined the data and found that the best way to survive a criminal attack was to resist - with a gun. Rather than being helpless, having a gun allows the victims to plan the best course of action - compliance or resistance. If someone with a gun had shot at the criminal in the Newtown incident, he might have been stopped earlier. Think about all the lives that might have been saved!

In a recent interview, Becca Knox, director of research at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and a gun control advocate, suggested that more gun control would reduce crime. But the numbers seem to tell a different story. As pointed out in an article by Peter Ferrara, general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union, "Chicago's murder rate was dropping before it banned handguns in 1982. The city's murder rate subsequently rose from 5.5 times as large as in the five neighboring counties to 12 times as large."

What people need is not just more gun control, but more education on signs of unstable or dangerous people, how to deal with them, and how to handle guns, like that provided in hunter education programs. If Adam Lanza's mom had taken the necessary precautions, he shouldn't have the access to her guns in the first place.


Las Cruces

A 9th grade student at Las Cruces High School

Living pledge

In respect to the swearing-in of the 113th Congress on Jan. 3, and the presidential inauguration on Jan. 21, perhaps the following revised pledge of allegiance would be appropriate. A "living" pledge of allegiance:

"I pledge an allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it now stands, a nation no longer under God, divided, to which I will not comply with nor abide by any presidential executive order, legislative law, or court decree which violates God's laws or the Constitution of the United States of America, as established by our Founding Fathers in 1787."


La Mesa

Elusive popularity

A letter writer in the Jan. 7 Sun-News - while extolling the virtues and Hollywood-based popularity of a former president - predicted "there will never be another Ronald Reagan."

Had he checked first with both the publishing world, and C-Span, he might have though twice before going out on the limb.

Those who did watch a very recent C-Span broadcast quickly learned just how the Reagan "popularity" failed to meet expectations. That extraordinary program highlighted leading book publishers at a special panel held in Washington at the Library of Congress.

Panelists extolled recent hits, both fiction and non-fiction, but admitted there's no sure way to guarantee which new works will be popular enough to really capture the bestseller list. As a historic example of a pervious dismally disappointing outcome, one of the panelists recounted the experience with the book done upon retirement by no less than President Ronald Reagan.

In anticipation of a record public response to a memoir from the movie star turned Oval Office Maestro, the publisher handed Reagan a check for the amazing amount of $8,000,000 as an advance against expected record sales.

But no such luck!

Despite all the hoopla and fanfare surrounding its debut, Reagan's book eventually sold a measly 350,000 copies.


Las Cruces