Thanks for reminding me. I've been meaning to update that post. I went home that day and wrote a response to her and it was published the following week. Here is what I wrote... (copied and pasted out of my email to the editor) I'll update that other post also.
Editor:
> >
> >
> > In response to an opinion, ‘Guns are Dangerous’, from 1/20/2011:
> >
> >
> > The approximate 115 people that die every day in the U.S. from
> > vehicle collisions are less healthy than they were before driving
> > that day. This is not a difficult concept. Driving is a hazard to
> > health. We regulate other threats to public health but allow the
> > threat from vehicle accident trauma to remain in our community.
> >
> >
> > By now, everyone reading this should be thinking, “What is this
> > guy talking about!?” That is how I felt after reading an Opinion
> > article in the 20Jan2011 printing of Wilton-Durant Advocate News.
> >
> >
> > To sum it up, the President of ‘League of Women Voters of Iowa’,
> > Myrna Loehrlein, believes that eliminating guns from our communities
> > will prevent/eliminate gunshot trauma such as the recent incident in
> > Tucson, AZ. She states that gunshot health risks are 100 percent
> > preventable.
> >
> >
> > Let me give some facts cited from Gun Owners of America
> > (gunowners.org):
> >
> >
> > “Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding
> > citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as
> > 2.5 million times every year—or about 6,850 times a day. This means
> > that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to
> > protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.”
> >
> >
> >
> > “Concealed carry laws have reduced murder and crime rates in the
> > states that have enacted them. According to a comprehensive study
> > which reviewed crime statistics in every county in the United States
> > from 1977 to 1992, states which passed concealed carry laws reduced
> > their rate of murder by 8.5%, rape by 5%, aggravated assault by 7%
> > and robbery by 3%.”
> >
> >
> >
> > “Gun-free England is not such a utopia after all. According to the
> > BBC News, handgun crime in the United Kingdom rose by 40% in the two
> > years after it passed its draconian gun ban in 1997. According to a
> > United Nations study, British citizens are more likely to become a
> > victim of crime than are people in the United States. The 2000
> > report shows that the crime rate in England is higher than the crime
> > rates of 16 other industrialized nations, including the United
> > States.”
> >
> >
> >
> > “Washington, D.C. has, perhaps, the most restrictive gun control
> > laws in the country, and yet it is frequently the Murder Capital of
> > the nation. In the 25 years following the DC gun ban, its murder
> > rate INCREASED by 51 percent, even while the national rate DECREASED
> > by 36 percent.”
> >
> >
> > In my opinion, the only thing that taking away guns from law-
> > abiding citizens is going to do is just that, take away from only
> > the honest/hard-working American who lawfully owns and uses a
> > firearm. The people whom are out there to create havoc upon our
> > nation and in our communities with a gun are going to do it
> > regardless of what the laws are, because obviously, they aren’t law
> > abiding. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure that out. Our Laws do not
> > apply to them because they will not abide by them. They will not
> > hand over their guns unless physically caught with them. Hence, we
> > will be taking protection away from ourselves and creating less of a
> > threat to violence committed with a firearm.
> >
> > Myrna Loehrlein’s statement of “gunshot health risks are 100
> > percent preventable” is 100 percent FALSE! Gun registration wasn’t
> > enacted in the U.S. until 1968. How many millions of firearms are on
> > the streets today that were bought and sold before 1968 that
> > couldn’t possibly ever be traced or confiscated? Good luck bringing
> > a knife to a gun-fight.
