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McCook Gazette

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Editorial

Holidays too often result in violence

Thursday, January 5, 2012
McCook Daily Gazette

The holidays are a great time of the year, but too many times they are marred by violence.

A scan of the news indicates this year included some especially tragic cases.

In Oklahoma, a teenage widow -- her 58-year-old husband had just died of lung cancer -- shot and killed an intruder who took half an hour to break into the home where she was caring for her 3-month-old son. The intruder, 24, broke in with a large hunting knife, perhaps looking for prescription drugs left behind by the cancer patient.

Because their actions resulted in a death, the 24-year-old intruder's 29-year-old companion was charged with murder; the young widow wasn't charged.

In Texas, a police shot and killed an eighth grader who had just punched another student for no apparent reason, and pointed a pistol at responding officers. The pistol turned out to be a pellet gun.

In San Diego, two elite Navy fighter pilots, a sister of one of the pilots and a man they had just met at a nightclub are dead in an apparent murder-suicide. One of the pilots apparently shot the others before killing himself.

Gun opponents and advocates will read what they want into the fact that a record 1.5 million background checks for gun purchases were conducted in December, 500,000 of them in the six days before Christmas, and 102,222 on Dec. 23 alone.

Some say the guns are being purchased because people fear for their personal safety, and tight budgets are forcing law enforcement agencies to cut staff.

Others say people are just hoarding guns because of fears the administration will pass new restrictive legislation.

Both sides should be able to agree, however, that guns and poor judgment, whether caused by drugs, alcohol or mental instability, are a bad combination.

Comments
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  • Sadly, 'poor judgment' is not compatible with anything, be it dangerous, like a firearm, or beneficial, 'medication,' which was the reason, as you say, for the intrusion, to start with. Could we say that a beneficial/medical substance, coupled with poor judgment, caused the man's death?

    Your article is so fraught with avenues for debate, I will stop with what I have offered, but I do believe the author of your article let bias cloud logic, and true American Freedom.

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Thu, Jan 5, 2012, at 4:32 PM

  • With stricter gun control, the intruder that busted in a door might have lived, and that mother defending herself and her baby might not.

    Stricter gun control laws will do nothing to stop police from carrying guns, or stop tragic accidents. I'm certain no one is more sick about that child than the police involved.

    I'm sure it would be much less of a problem for the current rash of murder-suicides to involve knives, bombs, poison, fire, or some other method of killing people??

    Both sides would agree that all weapons combined with mental issues are a bad mix...and those that don't have mental issues are far better off if they possess the ability to defend themselves and their families. Right?

    -- Posted by MrsSmith on Fri, Jan 6, 2012, at 8:15 AM

  • The thing is gun control only controls guns sold to honest people. I would be willing to say a large portion of criminals obtain there guns illegally. Basically gun control takes away the victims defense and not the criminals weapon.

    -- Posted by carlsonl on Fri, Jan 6, 2012, at 6:35 PM
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    I have personally known only one person who was killed with a gun other than suicide. That one was certainly from poor judgement, as well as alcohol.

    I have personally known so many who were killed in auto accidents, I cannot count them all. Some were from poor judgement, as well as alcohol.

    Eliminating guns sounds like such a neat solution, but it simply cannot be done. Have you noticed that the ban on illegal drugs has not eliminated them? Or that banning alcohol during Prohibition did not eliminate alcohol?

    When you hear the term "gun control" please substitute the words "civilian disarmanment". No controls have ever been proposed which would take guns away from law enforcement, the military, fish and game officials, Homeland Security officials, or the Secret Service. Just civilians.

    Have you ever wondered why the government would like to have all the power?

    -- Posted by Boomer62 on Fri, Jan 6, 2012, at 9:35 PM
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