In Friday’s Opinion, Other Editors column, someone with the McComb, MS, Enterprise Journal weighed in proposing “middle ground” on the issue of “gun control.” They want a resurgence of the “assault weapons” ban and the high capacity magazine ban as a compromise. Neither would have made any difference in the theater massacre in Colo. a couple of weeks ago. The only thing that would have made a big difference is if one or more patrons would have been allowed, by the theater management, to carry legally concealed handguns into the theater. Nobody wants to get shot, or even shot at, so I believe that the shooter would have fled long before he killed or wounded so many innocent people.
Of course, there is another possibility as well. Remember the hijacked airplane on 9/11 that went down in a field before it could strike the terrorists’ intended target? It crashed, saving untold lives, because a few brave men fought back. They were unarmed, against religious fanatics bent on killing themselves and as many others as possible. What if some of those movie-goers would have had the same courage? Surely some of them would have died, but it’s just as surely that many others would have lived or even gotten out unharmed.
Those people died because of cowardace. Everyone was scrambling to get away from the shooter, and the hell with anybody else. There were a few instances of heroism there that awful night. Some used their bodies to shield others, dying so others could live. If that would have happened on a battlefield, those courageous people would have been eligible to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. Another stayed, tending to the wounds of a stranger, risking her own life and safety. That would be worth at least a Silver Star. If our Congressmen and Senators should read this, I would like to nominate them for the Peace Medal, the highest award that can be given to civilians. (I think I’ve got that correct. If not, you gentlemen know what to do.)
What we need is a law saying that in cases like this, where there is absolutely no doubt that the accused is guilty, he shall have thirty days in which to get his affairs in order, then execute him. That’s not cruel or unusual. I don’t care what lily-livered excuse he used: mental instability; low IQ; on drugs; off his meds; nothing is acceptable for what he did.
I know “Raider” and “NT5150” will anonymously weigh in on this (online), so bring it on, if you will. You can send in a Letter to the Editor just as easily as you can “comment” behind an alias.
One “comment” posted anonymously (on cdispatch.com) claimed that he had had a gun shoved in his face twice! How lucky can you get? I have a nephew in Jackson who was napping in a chair at a friend’d house when he awoke to find a gun shoved in his face. He has the scar where the shooter pulled the trigger. Luckily the bullet traveled around the outside of his skull and exited the back of his head. If that punk was standing in front of me right now, I’d give him a taste of his own medicine. Another person hiding behind an alias opined that I’m not a Christian because of my statements. I’m too old to take an ass-whuppin’ from some punk and too young to die because I didn’t have a gun at a gunfight.
Now, on to two more topics that will get my critics’ blood boiling. On the same page was a column by Ms. Caroline Baum on Tax Policy, and the idiocy of taxing the rich more to “pay” for more entitlements to the poor. Read the article. It was good. If the government really wanted to solve the problem, the first thing to do is gut the IRS. Scrap all the tax laws and start fresh. Make everyone pay ten percent on all earnings. Institute a national sales tax on everything. Some items would be exempt, like doctor visits and medications, and probably the news media. No matter who you are, legal or not, you would pay some tax. I know the black market would grow, but if the IRS is kept, they could go after that. The only fly in this ointment is that a major problem would wind up being solved, instead of kept to use in campaign speeches. If our Congressmen and women, plus our Senators, had to wear patches on their jackets showing who contributed to their campaigns, it might help explain how and why they have voted the way they have.
Finally, one more thing: the uproar over Voter ID. Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, has sued the State of Fla. to stop them from purging dead people from voter rolls! Do what? Yep, the dead in Fla. can vote without proving who they are! By and large, fraud at the polls isn’t where most illegal votes are cast, it’s fraud in absentee ballots. Here in Noxubee County absentee ballots are a joke and a waste of time for honest voters. The poll workers throw ballots out if they suspect the voter hasn’t voted the “right” way, and accept absentee ballots from voters whom they know are dead. Yes, it has happened.
The fix is to re-do absentee ballots, as well as purge the voter rolls. Every time a jury summons list is published in the Macon Beacon, you can find at least three or four people you know have been dead for years. Purge the condemned voter rolls and that will help in so many ways. I advocate re-registering everybody, with a valid photo ID, signature and thumb print. Put that into a database, available to all counties, free of charge. That would prevent somebody from voting “for” somebody else who has passed on, or from voting multiple times. Felons could be automatically prevented from voting. Such a simple solution, and it doesn’t “disenfranchise” anybody as no ID would be needed at the polls, just your thumb.
This country needs to “man up” and start doing what is right instead of what’s politically correct.
Cameron Triplett
Noxubee County
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