http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-0714-wednesday-20100713,0,1870621.story
None of the letters are really worthy of rebuttal. Same old 'wild west', small genitalia, 'guns are evil', 'false flag' crap.
Agreed that the letters are hardly worthy of rebuttal. An educational response perhaps, but not a rebuttal. Ignorance is the real enemy here.
A few exerps:
"They love the attention they get walking the streets with a pistol on their hip, and they don't give a damn if it frightens people like me and my kids."
While people inherently like attention for all sorts of different reasons, some good and some very distructive, I doubt that that's what 99% of OC'rs are doing it for. What exactaly "frightens" you about it? Are you equally as frightened when you see the same pistol on the waistband of a police officer?
"...please stop telling us that you are making the streets safer. If we want your help fighting crime, we'll ask you."
Really? Because even though I train daily in close quarter hand to hand combat, I have never ever had someone come up to me and ask me to fight crime. Nor is it my job to do so. The same goes for OC'rs. Fighting crime is the job of the police, not a civilian OC'r that is simply protecting his/herself. Does it "make the streets safer"? Sure, but that's due to the presence of it as a deterrent to would be crime and NOT because we are going around with a chip on our shoulder.
"On the first page of the California section of Sunday's Times, there is a report about a group seeking broader acceptance of guns in public.
Inside the section, on Page 39, the Times reports that a boy killed his young brother by shooting him accidentally.
Enough said."
The two are 100% unrelated both in context and reality. But thank you media moguls for yet again placing the stories in the same headline to keep the general population (sheep) in fear of firearms. In other words, ignorance makes for an easier controlled population I guess.
"...nobody really wants to go to the beach if there are people carrying weapons around."
Funny, the last time I was at the beach, which was not too long ago since I live right next to it, I saw a bunch of weapon weilding people around. They wear badges and supply a healthy dose of revenue to the cities in which they are employed. Didn't seam to deter too many people from frolicking in the surf. At least I'm not actively looking to site you for something or worse, arrest you. Oh, and just because you don't see weapons, doesn't neccissarily mean that people don't (legally) have them all around you (CCW's). With that knowledge, I guess you will either go around paranoid ALL the time or you will simply never leave your house. Psst... stay indoors, less ignorant mindsets are likely to be spread that way.
"How would you guys feel if, say, a few carloads of Crips showed up right next to your beach BBQ, all sporting guns, with ammo on the other hip?"
Provided they obtained the guns legally and OC'd legally... perfectly fine. Remember that thing called the Constitution?
"Guns are for killing. When you go to the beach, take a surfboard, take a Frisbee, take a guitar or take a California girl. Leave the death machine at home..."
When you can personally GUARANTEE me that you have convinced the would be rapist/murderer/kidnapper/anarchist to leave his weapons and/or bad intentions at home before he/she comes to the same public place.... You've got a deal!
:banghead: