The Norman Transcript

Opinion

Discussion

December 19, 2012

Tragedy demands legislation

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript:

The tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Conn., is beyond horrible. Mere words are not adequate. Senseless killing is never easy to understand. The senseless killing of children is impossible to comprehend. The survivors, the parents and friends, classmates and those dealing with the aftermath need all our prayers.

In visiting with my son about this subject today, he made an interesting observation: “At some point, we (Americans) need to have a serious conversation about the easy access to guns.”

While not a popular statement with certain segments of our society, there have been at least nine incidents of gun-initiated multiple murders in the United States since 1990, including: July in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre; January 2011 at a Tuscon, Ariz., supermarket opening; November 2009 on the Fort Hood Army post, outside Waco, Texas; April 2007 on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va.; March 2006 in Seattle; April 1999 in Columbine High School in Colorado; July 1986 in an Edmond post office; January 1993 in Palestine, Ill.; October 1991 in Killeen, Texas.

The preceding examples do not include the thousands of individual murders during the same time.

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the most dangerous weapon on the planet was a single-shot musket that took nearly two minutes to reload.

Many scholars believe that the framers wanted to ensure that everyone would have the tools necessary to feed one’s family. It is totally unreasonable to believe that they could have imagined a hand-gun capable of rapidly firing a dozen rounds before reloading, or an assault rifle capable of cutting a brick wall in half with one magazine of ammunition in less than two minutes.

Every soldier quickly learns that assault rifles, automatic handguns and similar weapons are built for one purpose: to kill human beings. It is time that we as a nation have a serious conversation about what constitutes a weapon for hunting game or defending one’s home versus killing our neighbors.

Of course, that is my opinion, I could be wrong.

BILL HUNTINGTON

Norman

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Opinion
  • Johnson analyzed issue well

    Editor, The Transcript: I would like to thank Jim Johnson for his thoughtful, thorough and sensible analysis of the gun situation in our country.  He has made a meaningful contribution to what one hopes will become a civilized ...

    May 24, 2013

  • New faces on the bench

    Cleveland County is one step closer to getting another district judge. House members overwhelmingly approved the legislation moving a vacant seat from Seminole County in eastern Oklahoma to Cleveland County....

    May 24, 2013

  • The randomness of it all

    A drive through the fringe streets of the damaged areas in Moore and south Oklahoma City this week shows the randomness of Monday’s tornado. Homes that appear to have little or no damage stand next to ones that are ready to be pushed over....

    May 24, 2013

  • Diana Frost letter correction

    Letter correction: A letter to the editor from Diana Frost, originally published in March 2012, was inadvertently published again in Sunday’s paper. The Transcript apologizes for the error....

    May 23, 2013

  • Teachers should be proud

    Editor, The Transcript: He walked by the camera in his red OU T-shirt, splattered with dirt, hair disheveled, and cuts on his face. He told the reporter about helping rescue people from the rubble of the tornado. He spoke of his experience ...

    May 23, 2013

  • Misinformation clouds global warming

    Next spring I will again have to update my lecture on global warming. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is now rising above the 400 ppm level for the first time in perhaps 5 million years — a scenario humans have never experienced. In my Geology ...

    May 23, 2013

  • The Oklahoma standard

    The sight of hundreds of young student volunteers walking across Moore’s Fourth Street interstate overpass had to be uplifting to the city’s tornado victims. They carried rakes, brooms and trash bags. A few had children’s red wagons. There ...

    May 23, 2013

  • Roman Catholic Church too busy to respond with hate

    Editor, The Transcript: Diana Frost’s letter of May 19 concerning the Roman Catholic Church was so unreasonable that it almost defies response. Still, one of her many accusations must be addressed....

    May 22, 2013

  • There’s no answer for ‘Why?’

    Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. Pictures were on the walls and memories were in every room. But in seconds, those joys of life were reduced to a concrete slab by a rage of nature that man will never fully understand....

    May 22, 2013

  • Moore’s amazing resilience

    Our hearts, already heavy from Sunday’s deadly tornado in far eastern Cleveland County, sunk even further Monday afternoon as we watched the tornado rip through Moore. The monster storm that hit Monday followed nearly the same path as the ...

    May 22, 2013