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Community Corner

Guns Should Be Licensed And Registered

Do You Want People Driving a Car Without a License? And Other Notes

After recent events with mass shootings, JB Davis, Benicia Patch’s editor asked about . I read many of the comments, which were often about unrelated topics. Eventually, with the sane voice of Steve Bahr, the discussion came back to some kind of reason. Seems Switzerland actually does have a significant amount of guns and ammunition control.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The constitution isn’t perfect. That’s why it’s been amended a number of times. As stated, the right to bear arms is linked to militia use. Nothing else. I don’t have a problem with people having guns, if the person is checked out and the gun is a reasonable kind. Not assault weapons.

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The National Rifle Association has bought and paid for our representatives to the point that even President Obama is afraid to utter the words “gun control.”

To those who thought that the heavily armed gunman who entered a darkened theatre in Colorado a few weeks ago could have been brought down if someone else had a gun—that’s possible, but how about if half a dozen people had guns and they all leaped up into the darkness and started shooting at anything that moved? That would be mayhem.

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Driving a car is a privilege and we are required to have some knowledge about the laws and pass a test to have a license. A car isn’t a lethal weapon!

Just because we have drivers who break the law, do you think we should do away with traffic enforcement laws? Some people still drive drunk, but do you want to get rid of the laws in that regard? We don’t live in a perfect world, but in some cases we’ve made progress.

When I was a young woman, people routinely went to parties or bars, drank as much as they wanted and then drove home. The more restrictive laws in regard to drinking and driving have decreased that practice—among the people I know.

Ironically, I believe that the idea that toting a gun makes us safer is linked for many at the national level. They believe that having a strong military makes us safer. So, since WWII while we have built up our military-industrial complex, as Eisenhower warned against, our former enemies haven’t. Germany and Japan have spent money on infrastructure. I don’t believe there has been a war since WWII that has made us safer.

On another subject, I want to thank Renee Jordan of Jordan Real Estate for paying the cost of having poems printed for the Poem Homes. And, thank you to the First United Methodist Church of Vallejo for loaning us a podium for the Poets’ Picnic and to our five teenage volunteers (four of whom are pictured): Marcos Ansaldi, Lainy Appleby, Nick Lamb, Sophie Lannen, and Brooke Reddel.

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