To The Editor:
I’m responding to “BK reacts to gun ruling” by Aaron Short.
To me, it appears that some of Brooklyn’s elected officials think that violence will rise due to the Supreme Court decision on the Right to Bear Arms (District of Columbia v. Heller) and that banning illegal guns will stop the violence.
The Second Amendment guarantees a law-abiding US citizen the right to bear arms and the US Supreme Court recognized the amendment’s original intent. Laws banning illegal gun ownership ban legal gun ownership. Those with illegal guns most likely have an unlawful intent, obtained them bypassing gun laws and will continue to obtain illegal guns, bypassing illegal gun laws.
The Second Amendment advocates state that guns owned by law-abiding US Citizens actually deter crime. Although very competent in fighting crime, NYPD can’t always respond to every incident fast enough to prevent the lost of lives. Yet, however, an armed law-abiding citizen (trained well in firearms usage) seeing the crime scene can. I’m sure the Colorado Springs Police responded as fast as they could to the gunman shooting at the New Life Church, but it was Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard at the church, who prevented more deaths – because she was there and because she was armed.
The gun is not the weapon. The person behind the gun is – whether it’s for violence or self-defense. Any tool (such as a box cutter the “Police Blotter” reported a neighbor using) can be used for violence.
Illegal gun laws will not stop violence because they aren’t the root causes of violence – people are. The real cause of violence stems from the hearts and minds of people, and the culture that breeds it.
Until our elected officials address the root causes of violence and instead of the surface tools used in violence, it will not go away and no illegal gun ban will make violence go away.
I’ll leave you with this paragraph from an article entitled, “Why the Gun is Civilization..” It expresses beautifully how the gun would empower would-be victims and why I agree with the US Supreme Court’s decision.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
Unless violence is transmuted from our hearts and minds, the gun serves as our best defense against it.
Rafiq Jennings
Brooklyn
