Letter: Punish criminals, don't punish the gun owners

For the last eight years we have been controlled by a presidential team: the Clintons, Gore and their supporting senators. This "P-Team" has been for sale, their actions going to the highest bidders; legal industry, education, pseudo-enviromentalists, the rich, foreign interest, and the anti-gun interests (not anti-crime).

A large portion of our legislators have held firm on keeping ill-defined gun controls at a meaningful level rather than endangering our 200 year old right to legally possess and use our weapons. Weapons have continuously become more important in protecting ourselves from the violent races and even prisoners from foreign prisons. Possessing a weapon is a form of insurance like fire insurance on our homes. We may never use it but we would not live without its protection.

Shootings that have happened were blamed on the weapons rather than the murders. In the Columbine school, we should be thankful the murderers used their guns rather than their pipe bombs and propane tanks. Either of the other weapons would have killed hundreds rather than a few. The school administrators were warned of the impending trouble but took no action. Clinton vetoed the bill, which would have provided $15,000,000 to train school administrators to recognize potential violent situations. Do not forget the federal building where more than 100 people were killed without using a gun.

When I was 14, I lived near Seattle and passed by a tavern every day. One evening the manager removed one of the patrons who returned later with a weapon (not a gun) and killed all 40 patrons in about one minute. His weapon is available today, to anyone, in any area for about $10. The shooting in the zoo in Washington, D.C. occurred where they have the tightest gun controls in the country.

The National Rifle Association has always pushed for greater punishment for use of weapons in commission of crimes, but our representatives still release dangerous criminals from prisons and tie the hands of our police forces in performance of their duties by releasing criminals for minor omissions in the investigating process.

Clinton is using his normal conniving methods to get his way by deceiving the women who do not understand the problems and costs that would be created by any new form of gun control. Punish criminals, don't waste money punishing people who have never committed a crime and don't waste the time of police agencies in persecuting individuals who have never performed a socially harmful act.

MEL E. DENNEY

Dayton