AURORA

Now comes the man in black armed to the hilt with pistols and long guns,who enters a theater full of people and opens fire on innocents; deathly carnage ensues. 

Surely, all of us are in sympathy with the people of Aurora and none of us would wish this on anyone.  Every legitimate gun owner in the country feels that way.  We members of the NRA feel that way.  Yet, by the end of the day today, allegations are going to be made that the guns did it and the resulting assertions will be that we have to confiscate every gun in the country. 

If there were no legal guns left in the country, you and I both know that there would be illegal guns and everyone else would be a target for crime.  The individual who perpetrated this horror evidently had been planning it for several months; if he wanted to get his hands on illegal guns, he surely could have.  What I am saying here is that the guns did not commit the crime; they did not design it, plan for it, load themselves… the guy did all of those things. 

Why didn’t some alarm go off when he went out the side door to get his guns?  Why wasn’t some security camera on the outside of the building watching him don his dark clothing and getting his weapons? 

There have been statements that he had buckets full of ammo in his apartment.  Between my guns, I have well over 1,000 rounds of ammo.  But, it’s not unusual.  When I see sales on ammo, I buy.  I also go to the range and shoot targets and go through ammo.  But, I don’t have buckets full; my ammo is all sorted and in cartridge cartons. 

I wish I had been there to blow the guy away and stop that ugly terror.  Every law-abiding gun owner is just as angry and wishes the same thing.  We are so sorry for what happened and we so much wish that our society would get back to the days of real values when these things never happened and, just like today, a whole lot of people had guns.  

The problem is not guns; it's our society.  

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.