Monday, July 2, 2012

What’s wrong with this picture? Chicago gun buyback raises money for NRA kids' gun camp

       Good Day Humboldt County!

If there’s anyone with conflicted feelings about guns it’s me.

As a combat veteran I know what guns can do. Growing up in neighborhoods more like war zones, also showed me what guns can do.

Members of NRA sponsored “Guns Save Lives” in Champaign, Ill. 

I have two sons who are card-carrying NRA members, but we don’t totally see eye-to eye on how available they should be. I disagree with the NRA because they won’t consider any changes to gun laws that would make the public safer. The NRA’s ultimate lobby power has stopped any meaningful gun reform in this country for decades.

The latest year for which detailed statistics are available (from the FBI) - there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms.

The United States leads the world's richest nations in gun deaths -- murders, suicides, and accidental deaths due to guns - according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

As many as one-half of American households have a gun, and each day, nearly 30 children are injured or killed by firearms in the United States - most from guns owned by the child's family or friends, according to a C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

Knowing these statistics, and many more, I firmly believe we need more gun laws to control sales and usage. We also need more education in the schools about the danger of guns. Gangsters and criminals of all sorts and ages have no problem getting guns no matter where they live in America.

What’s wrong with that picture? And what’s wrong with the following picture? …   

“Chicago’s firearm buyback program, titled “Don’t kill a dream, save a life,” aims to get dangerous weapons off the street. But a pro-gun rights group gleefully says it used the program to turn in “non-firing junk” to raise money for a National Rifle Association youth shooting camp.

Guns Save Life, based in Champaign, Ill., three hours south of Chicago, turned in dozens of guns and BB guns it had collected – “rusty scrap metal,” the group called the load – taking home $6,240.

Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton was not amused, according to the Sun-Times. “It’s unfortunate that this group is abusing a program intended to increase the safety of our communities,” Stratton said.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

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