since9
Campaign Veteran
Letter to the Editor [of the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association]
Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to the editorial, “An Unanticipated Journey: Barriers to Effective Gun Control in the United States” (Stein, 2013). Dr. Stein’s editorial about effective gun control saddens me as a nurse, a citizen, and National Rifle Association member. I specifically want to comment about her tone and assumptions in the editorial.
Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to the editorial, “An Unanticipated Journey: Barriers to Effective Gun Control in the United States” (Stein, 2013). Dr. Stein’s editorial about effective gun control saddens me as a nurse, a citizen, and National Rifle Association member. I specifically want to comment about her tone and assumptions in the editorial.
You may find the full text of her letter, here.
I found her letter to be quite comprehensive. I disagreed with her third point, however.
Her's: "I don’t believe there should be a medical registry of mentally ill persons who should not be able to legally purchase firearm, because again, if outlawed, someone who wants a firearm will purchase it illegally."
I believe the reason should be that any and all such registries have been abused, and when the abuse involves one's basic Constitutional rights, egregious harm results, one which the vast majority of our population does not have either the time or resources to fight through the courts. I believe the number one responsibility of our elected officials is to protect the people, and the absolute best way they can do that is by respecting and protecting their inalienable rights and freedoms, only a few of which have been codified in our Constitution.
