Let's get assault weapons off our streets

Well, I fired off my email, here is the text:

Dear Ms. Long

I write this with regaurds to your column "Let's get assault weapons off our streets."

Your article is filled with many untruths and misunderstandings. The first one is the unfortunate Tyler, Texas incident. The man was armed with a semi automatic weapon, and yes, he did kill his wife and a bystander. What you fail to mention was that the man was also trying to kill his son and failed. He failed because the bystander, Mark Wilson was also armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Mr. Wilson stopped the shooter, giving his life in the process.

Next, you go on to question the constitution. The constitution protects our right to bear arms of any type. You then go on to question why we need semi-automatic weapons. You ask "What in the world would you kill with a semi-automatic, unless you are just purposely going hunting for other human beings?" You then go on to say that you don't know much about hunting but assume that semi-automatic weapons are innapropriate for hunting.

I have only been hunting once, and I carried a semi-automatic weapon. I shot one squirrel, and it only took one shot. The meat was not the least bit chewed up by multiple shots, as there were no more shots.

You state that you are scared of guns and will not go near them. This shows you do not have an understanding of firearms at all. I personally do not know anyone that has been killed by a gun, yet I have buried many friends killed in automobile accidents. I would assume that you know many more people involved in car accidents than in shootings, but you probably drove to work anyway.

You then go on to talk about the 1994 assault weapons ban. It is clear that you do not have a clear understanding of this bill. This bill did nothing for automatic weapons, those were addressed in 1934. The assault weapons ban addressed mostly cosmetic features on guns, and many guns with exactly the same performance and ballistics were left on the street as they did not have what some would call the menacing look of the weapons that were addressed in the bill. I have attached a document in PDF format that may help shed some light on the assault weapons ban of 1994.

Next you go on to state that federal law states that fully automatic weapons can only be used by the milatary. This is completely untrue. While these weapons are indeed regulated, there is nothing preventing their legal ownership by anyone else.

Finally, you close by saying that assault weapons have no place on our streets and that the founding fathers did not have assault weapons in mind when they wrote the second amendment. I contend that the founding fathers did have assault weapons in mind when they wrote the amendment, along with ALL other form of weapon. Protection comes in many forms, be it from other people, animals, or even the hypothetical tyrannical government.

I close by simply asking that in the future you refrain from writing on subjects that you are uninformed on. Your position in the media gives you a wide audience and assumed credibility that should not be used either intentionally or unintentionally to spread falsehood. As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword, and I feel that given the topic of your article, you can appreciate that.

Sincerely,
Adam Zimmerman

We'll see what kind of response it garners.
 
My E-Mail to Ms Long and Most Importantly to her Editor.

Dear Ms. Long,

As a retired Texas Municipal Police Officer and a Federal Officer, I found your "Opinion Article on Semi Automatic Firearms" poorly written and even more poorly reasearched. You should check your facts before setting yourself up to be an "X-Purt" in any given area. Want me to list some of your mistatements.

What in the world would you kill with a semi-automatic, unless you are just purposely going hunting for other human beings?

Ms. Young they are used for Competition Shooting and Hunting both. I have used a Semi Auto Rifle for hunting and competive sport shooting since 1961.

Are you going to go out and shoot a deer with a semi-automatic?

I have hunted deer on several occasions with a Semi Automatic Rifle. When hunting the magazine is limited to four rounds of ammunition.

I admit that I don't know a lot about hunting, but seems like if you use a semi-automatic there won't be much left of the very animals you're trying to take home for dinner.

Again, extremely poor research. Most of the rifles that are commonly refered to as "Assault Rifles" have less powerful cartridges than the common rifles used to hunt deer in Texas. The ol' 30-06 is far more powerful that the "AKs or AR-15s" you don't like.

Personally, I'm scared of guns. I will not go near them, whether they're pistols or rifles. I don't care. I have buried too many friends and family members who died from shooting incidents.

But wait, you want to ban Semi Auto Rifles baised on your X-Purt opinions.

In 1994, Congress banned automatic and semiautomatic weapons, but it seems there are more reports than ever about shootings involving assault weapons.
"Immediately after the 1994 law was enacted, the gun industry evaded it by making slight, cosmetic design changes to banned weapons-including those banned by name in the law-and continued to manufacture and sell these "post-ban" or "copycat" guns," as reported in a study by the Violence Policy Center.

I would truly try and not write in one paragraph that the guns are banned and in the next state how they are being sold with slight mondifications. And by the way, the companpanies are adhereing to the law.

Federal law states that automatic weapons can only be used by the military.

I can understand the military needing automatic weapons. They conduct business in war zones, where the enemy is likely to be equipped with equally powerful and destructive automatic weapons.

But on the streets of our cities right here at home?

Assault weapons have no place in America or on our streets.

In the first paragraphs you are talking about Semi Automatic Rifles and in the conclusion you switch to Fully Automatic Machine Guns. Ms. Long, are you intentionally trying to confuse the public you write for or is this just another of your faulty prouncements.

Ms. Sherry Long, I pity your Editor and the readers in Rusk County if your editorial is an example of the journalism your paper produces. In the line of work I dedicated my self to, this sensationalism and faultly writing would have not have been tolerated. I would have been terminated with just cause immediately.

Respectfully,

Her Non Answer

Hello,


I got a lot of response from my assault weapon opinion/edtiorial article that ran in our paper earlier this month.

I realize that some of you may not be from Texas (I noticed that a few emails were from other states with the sign-off signatures at the bottom.)

I have been born and raised in Texas, Dallas to be exact. I did NOT mean for my article to indicate THAT ALL GUNOWNERS are bad and evil. I know it depends who is holding the weapon.

But after the Tyler incident, I began having flashbacks to the night my friend died.

It was 11 years ago. We had just graduated high school two weeks before, a group of us were going to a party for high school 2004 graduates near downtown Dallas. We were just going to have fun. We were teenagers. We didn't bother nobody. We pulled into the parking lot and started to walk to the party. Well there were some other teenagers in the parking lot, stealing a car. As we walked to the party my friend happened to look over and saw them. He could recognize one of the guys from our neighborhood. The kid pulled out a weapon and began firing. It hit two of my friends. It hit one in his main artery in his leg * he lived. My other friend was not so lucky. He took a bullet in the back and a bullet in his side through his ribs. He died protecting me. I was right next to him. It could have been me. I held him as the ambulance was the way. He died on the operating hospital at Parkland Hospital (the same hospital President John F. Kennedy was taken to). Three weeks after graduation we buried him. We were just going to have fun. FUN,,,,FUN,,, we were teenagers. He was scheduled to leave later that summer for a full football scholarship to a 4-year university in Louisiana. I vowed that day I would never ever go near a gun. (and yes I have undergone years of counseling and prayer to move forward. It doesn't make the pain any less painful though)

I realize that everyone with guns is not a bad person and some people do feel safer with them. The point I was trying to make is I don't. I sometimes wonder and ask myself what if guns had never been invented. Would my friend still be alive. Sure the other guy could have ran and had a fist fight with the guys or even try to cut them with a knife. We might have been able to run into the club by the time the guys got near us if that had been the case. My friends and I couldn't out run a bullet no matter how fast we ran.

When I want to talk to my friend. I have to go to a grave. A grave. I can't call him up and say hi. I can't say let's go get desert or watch a movie.

I am not nieve enough to know that guns will never go away. It's like saying rapists will go away. It doesn't mean that I have to like it.

The problem is guns wind up in the hands of the wrong people. If we didn't have guns they couldn't wind up in their hands though.

My father has friends who own guns and other weapons. When his friends start pulling them out to look at, load, prepare their bullets and other things I leave the room. A friend of a friend in college was raised around guns his whole life. He pulled out a pistol one day and played with it like it was a children's toy plastic gun. I couldn't get out of the room fast enough. He almost blew off part of his foot. He was twirling it around and stuff.

While I realize some of you may be like, well tough...your friend died. They meant a lot to me. I don't expect everyone to understand. You can't understand unless you have been there. Unless you've experienced the same thing.

I would also like to note that this was not an article that ran on our front page. It was an editorial/opinion/column. Which means just that. It was my opinion. I understand you may not agree with my opinion. THAT'S OK. Can you imagine what life would be like if everyone never disagreed or had differences in opinion. When differences in opinion are expressed in a logically and rational manner new things can be established. It's called compromise. It's called seeing the other person's point of view.

I thank you for your responses. Granted, all of them were opposing mine, but I didn't expect everyone to have the same opinion as mine. But please keep in mind, it's my opinion.

Everyone in America is granted the right to voice their opinions. Whether others may think they are wrong or not. My dad, uncles and countless of his friends fought for that right in the Vietnam War. I got lucky my dad came back.

For the record....I am considered by my collegues, friends, and family a (and consider myself to be a) very open-minded person.

I thank you for your opinions and the tasteful way they were presented.

Sherry Long

*****************************************************
Both were sent and received on 3/15/2005

Typical Anti Air Head, might have as well argued to a brick wall
What Most ANTIS understands is:
Take their money,
Take their freedom,
or Take their Life.

Jugnle Work
 
tripe. back to guns commit crimes. some of the anti-gun folks seem to imply that the "gun" is like some kind of magical thing..black magic..and will warp the soul of all who touch it! ACTUALLY, the so-called "assault rifle" is involved in very few crimes...last time I checked it was well under even 1%...and, if this same guy with the AK had been armed with a decent pistol or 2 and reasonably skilled in their use, he could have done the very same damage..(you know what the anti-gunners will say to that..take them all then!)..the anti-gunners take limited anecdotal evidence, such as the Tyler incident..and try to cast it as some kind of universal rule....it is fallacious reasoning and unsupported in the empirical evidence. (in fact the eivdenc eindicates violent crime in Canada, Australia and England WAY up since strict guns laws enacted) From my point of view if a couple of the local citizens had had a decent rifle/carine in their vehicles this jerk's shooting spree would have been a good bit shorter.....it was NOT
law enforcement who stopped the Jame's or the Youngers...or the Dalton's...it was the armed citizen. Sure, people can abuse firearms...people can abuse butter... it does not mean all must be banned and all reasonable people prohibited...to withdraw rights and confiscate property because less than 1% abuse something is not a reasonable path for a freedom loving people....especially when it appears it does not work anyway!
 
that's the same canned "response" we all have recieved to our emails. We need to keep banging on this woman's editor's door until she is canned.
 
I couldnt even finish reading this. :mad: :barf:

Who needs semi-auto? She's right who needs semi-auto...when we COULD have full. (w/o lots of paper work, & fees)
 
So... after being presented with the facts, she whines about past and hypothetical experiences, refuses to admit any factual problems with her opinion piece, and provides unverifiable social proof that she's open-minded ("[I think that] other people think that I'm open-minded").

It seems to me she has psychological issues that her therapy has either worsened or failed to help, since it was probably geared solely toward addressing the loss of her friend rather than her swearing off guns.
 
Sent to her:

I recently read your article on the dangers of assault rifles. I looked out the door a few minutes ago and didn't see any guns on the street. If you give me a location, I'll be happy to bring some friends by, and we'll be more than happy to pick these dangerous objects up. They'll be much better off in our gun safes than on laying on the street to get run over by careless drivers who kill more people yearly than guns. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and have a nice day.

Sent to the editor:

Dear sir,

I recently read the opinion article Ms. Sherry Long wrote about the dangers of assault rifles on the streets. If I could get past the fact that an eight-year-old could do a better job, I'd say you are lucky it is an opinion column, as few of her facts are correct. I suggest you ensure that she educates herself properly on the matter, reading up on the Second Amendment and the restrictions it places on government. She should also familiarize herself with the current gun laws at all levels.

I doubt either of you will take my letters seriously(I wrote to her too), but thank you for taking the time to read this. If we can get past liberal dogma to the facts, we can correct many things wrong in this country. Have a nice day.
 
Her response is founded on this fantastic premise: "What if guns were never invented?"

Hmmmmm. So I suppose guns were invented before humans started engaging in warfare? I suppose guns were invented before there were any incidences of murder?

Guns are a complex mechanical invention. They were invented to be used for warfare and perhaps the acquisition of game. They were not, however, invented so warfare or murder could be invented along with them. They exist separately.

If there was no such thing as a gun that had ever been invented, then it might have been something called a jawi-hik-to that emitted gamma rays at the target. Or perhaps something else all together.

Guns are just a single component of mankind's tradition of conflict and serve as nothing but tools to address that conflict.

To state that guns might not have ever existed is to state that humans-- or any intelligent creature for that matter-- would not be humans, but more primitive creatures.

To fantasize about such things is an exercise in existential nonsense.
 
I have buried too many friends and family members who died from shooting incidents.
Click to expand...
Just what kind of friends and family members does she have that they are getting shot with such frequency?
 
Perhaps she needs to read this:

INDEPENDENCE ISSUE PAPER

No. 12-91 Independence Instutute; 14142 Denver West Parkway #101;
Golden, CO 80401; (303) 279-6536

October 10, 1991

THE "ASSAULT WEAPON" PANIC:
"POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" TAKES AIM
AT THE CONSTITUTION

By Eric C. Morgan and David B. Kopel

The Gun Prohibition Lobby Has Carefully Exploited and Created Public Confusion.

Not everyone is confused. In the fall of 1988, Josh Sugarmann, formerly of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, and presently head of his own organization, the Violence Policy Center, authored a strategy memo for the gun prohibition movement. One of the most technically knowledgeable persons in the gun prohibition movement, Sugarmann had earlier earned distinction as the father of the "plastic gun" controversy.

In the 1988 memo, Sugarmann observed that the handgun-ban issue was considered old news by the media, and there was little realistic possibility of enacting handgun bans in the immediate future. In contrast, suggested Sugarmann, the "assault weapon" issue could allow the gun prohibition movement to open a massive attack on a new front. Sugarmann noted that public misunderstanding over the nature of semiautomatics would play directly into the hands of the gun prohibition movement:

The semiautomatic weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semiautomatic assault weapons -- anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun -- can only increase that chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.
 
And this is supposed to be a journalist?

I read her response letter with interest as it is filled with so many misspellings, grammatical errors and gaffs i was laughing out loud.

As reprinted from Jungle Works' post:

Her Non Answer

Hello,


I got a lot of response from my assault weapon opinion/edtiorial article that ran in our paper earlier this month.

I realize that some of you may not be from Texas (I noticed that a few emails were from other states with the sign-off signatures at the bottom.)

I have been born and raised in Texas, Dallas to be exact. I did NOT mean for my article to indicate THAT ALL GUNOWNERS are bad and evil. I know it depends who is holding the weapon.

But after the Tyler incident, I began having flashbacks to the night my friend died.

It was 11 years ago. We had just graduated high school two weeks before, a group of us were going to a party for high school 2004 graduates near downtown Dallas. We were just going to have fun. We were teenagers. We didn't bother nobody. (Nice street slang) We pulled into the parking lot and started to walk to the party. Well there were some other teenagers in the parking lot, stealing a car. As we walked to the party my friend happened to look over and saw them. He could recognize one of the guys from our neighborhood. The kid pulled out a weapon and began firing. It hit two of my friends. It hit one in his main artery in his leg * he lived. My other friend was not so lucky. He took a bullet in the back and a bullet in his side through his ribs. He died protecting me. I was right next to him. It could have been me. I held him as the ambulance was the way. (???) He died on the operating hospital at Parkland Hospital (the same hospital President John F. Kennedy was taken to). Three weeks after graduation we buried him. We were just going to have fun. FUN,,,,FUN,,, we were teenagers. He was scheduled to leave later that summer for a full football scholarship to a 4-year university in Louisiana. I vowed that day I would never ever go near a gun. (and yes I have undergone years of counseling and prayer to move forward. It doesn't make the pain any less painful though)

I realize that everyone with guns is not a bad person and some people do feel safer with them. The point I was trying to make is I don't. I sometimes wonder and ask myself what if guns had never been invented. Would my friend still be alive. Sure the other guy could have ran and had a fist fight with the guys or even try to cut them with a knife. We might have been able to run into the club by the time the guys got near us if that had been the case. My friends and I couldn't out run a bullet no matter how fast we ran.

When I want to talk to my friend. I have to go to a grave. A grave. I can't call him up and say hi. I can't say let's go get desert (an arid wasteland?) or watch a movie.

I am not nieve (Spanish for ice cream) enough to know that guns will never go away. It's like saying rapists will go away. It doesn't mean that I have to like it.

The problem is guns wind up in the hands of the wrong people. If we didn't have guns they couldn't wind up in their hands though.

My father has friends who own guns and other weapons. When his friends start pulling them out to look at, load, prepare their bullets and other things I leave the room. A friend of a friend in college was raised around guns his whole life. He pulled out a pistol one day and played with it like it was a children's toy plastic gun. I couldn't get out of the room fast enough. He almost blew off part of his foot. He was twirling it around and stuff.

While I realize some of you may be like, well tough...your friend died. (Huh?) They meant a lot to me. I don't expect everyone to understand. You can't understand unless you have been there. Unless you've experienced the same thing.

I would also like to note that this was not an article that ran on our front page. It was an editorial/opinion/column. Which means just that. It was my opinion. I understand you may not agree with my opinion. THAT'S OK. Can you imagine what life would be like if everyone never disagreed :barf: or had differences in opinion. When differences in opinion are expressed in a logically (?) and rational manner new things can be established. It's called compromise. It's called seeing the other person's point of view.

I thank you for your responses. Granted, all of them were opposing mine, but I didn't expect everyone to have the same opinion as mine. But please keep in mind, it's my opinion.

Everyone in America is granted the right to voice their opinions. Whether others may think they are wrong or not. My dad, uncles and countless of his friends fought for that right in the Vietnam War. I got lucky my dad came back.

For the record....I am considered by my collegues, friends, and family a (and consider myself to be a) very open-minded person.

I thank you for your opinions and the tasteful way they were presented.

Sherry Long
Click to expand...
 
No wonder her editor hasn't responded. That is one busy, busy man. :rolleyes:

(...and she makes her living writing! :eek: )
 
Yeah - I remember reading this the first time around. I didn't gather that it was a professional author and thought it just a post by someone on a BB.... Kind of disjointed and rather sloppy - like my posts sometimes are. I wasn't impressed by the writer's ability any more than what she was saying. She should be ashamed in more ways than one. :o
 
Even as an opinion piece, aside from all the emotions and her past experiences, she still has a responsibility to not misrepresent facts. I respect her opinion and the fact that she hates guns, although I hope she will approach them with an open mind. She was in the wrong however when she reported mistruths as FACT. In this article she presented many facts that were simply untrue to justify her opinion, and that is simply and wholly dishonest. I will tell her much the same if and when I recieve a response to my email.
 
Hi All-

"...It was 11 years ago. We had just graduated high school two weeks before, a group of us were going to a party for high school 2004 graduates near downtown Dallas..."

****************************************​

Eleven years ago...2004 high school graduates? How old is this woman and when did the shooting she allegedly witnessed happen? What in the world is she babbling about? I'm always very doubtful of the lefties who always come out of the woodwork with stories of the bloodied bodies they've seen piled five feet high in the streets due to gun violence.

Meanwhile, most of us who are "into" guns and have been around them our ENTIRE lives have yet to witness an injury (much less a fatality) caused by a firearm. The only time my pistol has cleared leather unexpectedly was when a bear crossed my yard and approached my window here in suburbia. Even then, the bruin lost interest and walked away and the pistol slid back into my holster. Aren't the statistics of how we enthusiasts have much more pleasant gun memories pretty darn interesting?

~ Blue Jays ~
 
By SHERRY LONG Staff Writer
Click to expand...
So called "mainstream" American media gets funnier every day.

I wonder if Jayson Blair or Danny Rather are hiring? Hmmm... even if they were Ms. Long would be over-qualified. :rolleyes:
 
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