Seattle Times: Sunday, September 9, 2012, page B2
in a story headlined, "Public forums to take up gun violence", Seattle Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith is quoted as saying,
"If you know someone with a gun, tell them to leave it at home. If you have a weapon, leave it at home. Maybe in that way the fights don't escalate..."
my answer:
dear Mr. Deputy Mayor: if someone points a gun in my direction, i am darn well going to escalate matters. i fail to see the wisdom in the Bad Guys having guns and the Good Guys not. maybe you think the Bad Guys will leave their guns at home because you asked nicely?
if you believe that unilateral disarmament is such a great idea, then my suggestion is that you have all your police officers leave THEIR guns at home. that way we can be sure that they won't do anything to escalate the fights.
if you want to bring up the extensive training that officers get that i have not gotten, i will point out the number of innocent bystanders that uniformed officers have killed or wounded in just the past few weeks.
i will also mention that my firearms instructor once told my class that she only feels it necessary to wear her bullet-proof vest WHEN SHE'S TRAINING OFFICERS, not when she trains ordinary citizens, because as a group, we are much safer weapon handlers.
finally, based on comparison with a friend who took the firearms qualification test several times when he was an officer, i probably shoot as well or better than 80% of your officers. and in my weekly group of 10-15 club shooters (none of whom were police officers) , i was slightly BELOW the average in shooting skills.
so should i decide to participate in your, "holistic approach" meetings to address, "what the city should do to respond" to escalating gun violence, be certain that i WILL be carrying my gun.
to DC forum members: knowing Seattle and Mayor McGinn's dislike of guns in the hands of ordinary people, i am fairly certain that their, "solutions" will involve trying to restrict the private ownership and carrying of handguns. the Washington State Constitution mentions the "right of the individual citizen" to firearms, and we also have a State preemption law which prohibits local jurisdictions from passing firearms laws more restrictive than the State law. This has not stopped Mayor McGinn, nor his predecessor, Mayor Nickles, from trying to do so anyway. so far, they have failed.
in a story headlined, "Public forums to take up gun violence", Seattle Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith is quoted as saying,
"If you know someone with a gun, tell them to leave it at home. If you have a weapon, leave it at home. Maybe in that way the fights don't escalate..."
my answer:
dear Mr. Deputy Mayor: if someone points a gun in my direction, i am darn well going to escalate matters. i fail to see the wisdom in the Bad Guys having guns and the Good Guys not. maybe you think the Bad Guys will leave their guns at home because you asked nicely?
if you believe that unilateral disarmament is such a great idea, then my suggestion is that you have all your police officers leave THEIR guns at home. that way we can be sure that they won't do anything to escalate the fights.
if you want to bring up the extensive training that officers get that i have not gotten, i will point out the number of innocent bystanders that uniformed officers have killed or wounded in just the past few weeks.
i will also mention that my firearms instructor once told my class that she only feels it necessary to wear her bullet-proof vest WHEN SHE'S TRAINING OFFICERS, not when she trains ordinary citizens, because as a group, we are much safer weapon handlers.
finally, based on comparison with a friend who took the firearms qualification test several times when he was an officer, i probably shoot as well or better than 80% of your officers. and in my weekly group of 10-15 club shooters (none of whom were police officers) , i was slightly BELOW the average in shooting skills.
so should i decide to participate in your, "holistic approach" meetings to address, "what the city should do to respond" to escalating gun violence, be certain that i WILL be carrying my gun.
to DC forum members: knowing Seattle and Mayor McGinn's dislike of guns in the hands of ordinary people, i am fairly certain that their, "solutions" will involve trying to restrict the private ownership and carrying of handguns. the Washington State Constitution mentions the "right of the individual citizen" to firearms, and we also have a State preemption law which prohibits local jurisdictions from passing firearms laws more restrictive than the State law. This has not stopped Mayor McGinn, nor his predecessor, Mayor Nickles, from trying to do so anyway. so far, they have failed.