OPINION:
The restrictive gun laws currently proposed would make Americans far more vulnerable than they are now. An armed citizen is often pivotal in preventing, aborting or ending a shooting.
Last August, a shooter began firing at a summer park event in Florida where there were over 150 children. Fortunately a licensed, armed citizen intervened and shot the the shooter before he could injure anyone. Police are usually in the role of first responders, and in the El Paso and Dayton shootings, police arrived in record time — but that was not sufficient to avoid mass murder and injury. Furthermore, given that police officers are now also being attacked by shooters, an armed citizen may provide needed protection for police, too.
To paraphrase Plato, good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly — and bad people will ignore the law. Those intent on killing will always find the means to do it, not only with guns but with knives, vehicles, bombs, etc.
New gun-control laws could not be enforced because they would endanger lives. And a government that cannot enforce its laws loses authority. Politicians who interfere with the right of self-defense may inadvertently jeopardize their own safety as well as assure their ouster from office.
HESSIE L. HARRIS
Silver Spring, Md.
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