Verona resident Mark Eulie listened to President Barak Obama’s speech on gun control yesterday and the response by the National Rifle Association. Here’s what he thinks.
I need to weigh in on this issue because I do not understand what the hysteria is about regarding the gun controls suggested by President Obama.
Growing up in Ulster County, N.Y., I had first-hand knowledge that many students and their parents took off to go hunting for the first day of deer season. Fine, it is a sport; one I do not participate in, but one that many enjoy. I just hope they use the meat, and where I grew up, most did.
I also ran a rifle range at a summer camp, teaching campers about the safety and responsibility of riflery. One young man went on to win awards as a high school marksman at the state level; a great sport and accomplishment. No one I know ever felt the need to own their own assault rifle or any other type of rifles that required excessive magazine rounds. Our president and governors are practicing risk management in an effort to reduce useless killings.
I really need to know, who out there feels the need for that kind of firepower in one’s closet? If this is your opinion please, show yourself. I believe, and you may all disagree, but if you feel the need for that much firepower, you are just one step away from covering your windows with foil.
What how about our police forces? Should criminals have access to better weapons than they have by stealing them from gun owners?
And what is wrong with background checks? When I began as a substitute teacher, Verona required a background check before I was able to ever step foot in a classroom. I needed another one for coaching my son’s baseball team as well as for my role as a den leader for the Boy Scouts of America.
Kids are precious and should be protected. That includes protecting them from the wrong person owning or having access to a gun, as we learned in Newtown, Conn. last month. Individual freedoms should never be held above the safety of our fellow citizens.
Why can’t the NRA realize it is time for a compromise?
And while we are at it, yes, Obama’s kids are more important than mine because no one is kidnapping my kid to exert pressure on the president to do something against the better interest of our country. Did the NRA really think this is a viable argument?
Please weigh in from both sides.
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AK-47 photo by brian.ch via Flickr. President Barack Obama’s statement on gun control to the Connecticut Post is here. The official White House site on gun control, Now Is The Time, is here.
Your assertion “Individual freedoms should never be held above the safety of our fellow citizens.” is ridiculous. Freedom and safety rarely go together. Freedom carries risks, your are free to succeed and free to fail. The safest place in the US is probably solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. The cell is high on the safety scale. No one will harm you there, but it is very low on the freedom scale.
The NRA is nothing but a trade industry group masquerading as a gun owners association. Gun manufacturers will suffer if the volume of guns being sold goes down. They benefit if more guns are sold. Keeping people scared and afraid escalates the number of guns being bought. It is in the NRA’s best interests to promote fear and support their corporate donors.
Since 2005, 74% of NRA’s funding has come from “corporate partners“. Some gun manufacturers are donating millions of dollars to the NRA.
The efforts of the Obama administration are the right choice. Requiring background checks and mental health screening are obvious requirements that do not prevent responsible individuals from owning firearms.
Assault weapons and large ammunition clips should be illegal. The only reason an individual would need those is if they are building an army.
I’m not sure but wasnt there a time a while back that verona high school had a shooting range? Kids get ideas now from violent video games and violent movies.
The collective historians of the “Old Verona” Facebook group inform me that what you’re remembering is the police shooting range that was located across the street from Verona High School–more or less where the Hillwood senior citizens building is now. The Old Verona members seem to think the range closed in 1980 or 1981 after the building there burned down.
Virginia, you are correct on the shooting range,i grew up close to there. there was also an area right next to it the town called ” tidy town “, this is where you were allowed to drop off all your bulk material there. i remember as a kid going to tidy town and picking up materials to build carts to race down my street with other kids. we also used to go to the shooting range and collect all the lead from the bullet casings that were left there, and one of the kids took it and sold it. but that range was for the police department not the High School.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Mr. Eulie. THere is no need whatsoever for anyone to have a high powered rifle in their posession. I support President Obama’s ideas and hope they come to fruition. Nothing has shook me to the core as the Connecticut incident – I believe that ever since that day I have looked at the world in a different light – the world truly scares me and of what some people are capable of.