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Sharing light in a dark time — Children at the Spring Hill Boys and Girls Club light candles at a vigil to pray for the 20 children and six adults who died Dec. 14 as victims of a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
By Al Everson
posted Dec 28, 2012 - 12:20:10pm
It happens every time there is a shooting spree with multiple victims: another round of debate about gun control, with rhetoric growing intense as law-abiding firearms owners come into the crossfire.
Newtown, Conn., is the latest locale whose name will be linked with violent death, along with Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, Texas, and Aurora, Colo.
“I think of the little children, four of my own and grandchildren,” said Dr. T. Wayne Bailey, longtime professor of political science at Stetson University. “If that can’t get to a human being, I don’t know what will.”
Is more stringent regulation of gun sales the silver bullet that will prevent slaughters? The Dec. 14 Newtown murders of 20 young children and six adults have revived the debate.
“It’s going to get serious,” Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said.
“Gun control” is a catchall term that means different things to different people, ranging from
Proposed regulations range from longer waiting times and deeper background investigations for would-be purchasers, to outlawing certain types of guns, often referred to as assault weapons.
Would gun control really work?
“No, I do not believe it would. All you would do is open up a black market for criminals,” Sheriff Johnson said.
The sheriff, whose career in law enforcement spans more than four decades, said another element is often missing in the debate about how to head off shooting rampages.
“We need more money put into the mental-health system, so that individuals can get help,” he said.
John Gregory, a DeLeon Springs resident, generally opposes new gun-control measures.
“We’ve got enough laws on the books,” said Gregory, a hunter and member of the National Rifle Association. “Some people don’t have any business with a gun. We need to use the laws that we have and somehow identify the nuts.”
Volusia County Circuit Judge James Clayton also likes to hunt.
“I just hope they take a well-thought-out and measured view of how this came about, without a knee-jerk reaction against firearms,” Clayton said.
Bailey, on the other hand, favors some new restrictions, plus a new emphasis on helping people in mental turmoil.
“I’ve followed this issue over a number of years, and the unfortunate thing is gun control has become a cliché. You’re either fur ’em or agin’ ’em. The redeeming point is we’re trying to discuss the issues and strive to find areas of common agreement after the Newtown tragedy,” he told The Beacon. “We’re beginning to talk about, not the ideology, but the real issues, but the way we treat mentally ill people.”
A DeLand gun collector said he, also, would like to see a balanced approach.
“I shoot, and I shoot competitively,” Ken Goldberg said. “I think that it’s a very complex problem, and there’s a lot of knee-jerk answers out there, and I think it’s going to be hard to find a solution if [New York City] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg is the spokesman for it. Rather, I think a lot about the conflict or concerns with regard to regulating firearms. There’s a lot of firearms regulation. There’s a lot of studies to show that the people who have concealed-weapons licenses are law-abiding.”
Goldberg, too, called for more attention to the mental health of people who want to own guns. He also questioned the policy of “deinstitutionalizing” people with acute mental disorders, allowing them to try to find their places in mainstream society.
“A disturbed person walked into a school,” Goldberg said. “Even if you have good health insurance, it’s still difficult to get good-quality mental-health care. It should be as easy as going to Walgreens to get a flu shot. ... Mental health — that’s 75 percent of the problem.”
Maybe, too, Goldberg said, armed security guards and surveillance cameras in schools would deter deranged killers.
“Let’s put cameras in the classrooms. Let’s have security guards monitoring them,” he said.
The Newtown shootings and the new demands for tougher gun laws have spurred business for local gun dealers.
“We sold six guns today,” said Nick Czerok, owner of 2nd Amendment Firearms in Downtown DeLand, on Dec. 18. “We sold four on Saturday.”
Each of the buyers must undergo an instant-check with the FBI crime-information database.
At this writing, not all of the sales at 2nd Amendment Firearms are final, because of Florida’s minimum waiting period of three business days for the purchase of a handgun if you don’t have a concealed-weapons permit.
“If you come in and want to buy a handgun, you can’t pick it up today,” Czerok said.
Another DeLand gun dealer, Jeff Dill, said business has been good.
“Unbelievable. Tremendous amount. The clientele is very concerned that we’re going to lose our Second Amendment rights,” said Dill, owner of Stone Mountain Jewelers.
Asked Dec. 19 how many guns he and his staff have sold in recent days, Dill replied, “Maybe 30, just since we opened yesterday morning. Saturday, we were covered up.”
Most of the weapons were purchased in the wake of the Newtown shootings, he said.
Lewis Long, a retired military officer who lives in West Volusia, said he feels hopeful about the task set before Vice President Joe Biden by President Barack Obama, to come up with concrete suggestions regarding guns before Inauguration Day.
“We don’t need the kind of guns we find on the street,” Long said. “Traditionally, we had rifles to hunt with, but none of this stuff [such as assault rifles] you find now.”
Long said gun ownership is one thing, but he cannot find a practical purpose to have some of the available weapons on the market.
“What kind of weapons do you need to go hunting?” Long asked. “What kind do you need to defend yourself? ... I mean are you going to put a Gatling gun in the door?”
The greater problem, though, is the devaluing of human life, and weapons availability. Hundreds of years ago, Long said, based on the Second Amendment, if the people of the United States needed to bear arms, they went to arsenals.
“They went and got their weapons,” Long said. “And, not everybody owned one.”
Reader Comments
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By making it illegal to conceal carry in schools and other locations, all that is done is create a target rich environment of unarmed victims for the crazy or malicious person that wants to hurt others. Since they have decided to commit multiple murders they probably aren't concerned with committing the felony of carrying a weapon onto a school campus.
If someone has passed the background check and has had the training to get a concealed weapons permit then they should be allowed to protect themselves in public places like university campuses, schools or even movie theaters.
More security in our schools is the most effective answer to this problem. Washington should be looking at funding solutions for staffing a resource officer at every school primary and secondary. Instead of looking at banning certain magazines or weapons.
One could just as easily cause as much damage with 3, 10 round magazines as 1, 30 round magazine. However, if we are to take the easy, knee jerk response of blaming inanimate objects, let's also look at the 1st person shooter games (i.e. call of duty) that help create and amplify the fantasy of mass murder for these disturbed individuals.
Also i dont agree one iota aboutthis mentally ill b.s. If the kid in ct, was that impaired to commit these acts then why did he know wnough to kill himself? Thats not crazy thats cowardly.
Since you would "love to see one example".....
Here are two........Katrina & Andrew.
I find it interesting that your really citing a handful of examples of knife stabbings (one occurring in 2001) where a few people were injured or killed. That's actually my whole point. A deranged person with a knife and a deranged person with an assault rifle with a high capacity clip will have two very different outcomes. Ask the families in Colorado and Newtown which weapon they would have preferred used on the day their family members were attacked. That's just two U.S. examples from this year Sadly, I dont't need to cite examples from 2001 or other countries to make my argument.
I'm not advocating for all guns to be banned. I respect a person's right to protect themselves against criminals and to protect their families. I just don't agree that an assault rifle with a 30 round clip is the only way to accomplish that protection. In fact, I would love to see one example of where a high capacity clip or an assault rifle was the only way a non-military citizen was able to protect themself .
While there may never be an absence of guns and plenty of AR style guns are already in the marketplace, that's not a strong enough reason to throw our hands up and let the problem continue to grow. There are things that can be done that will help minimize future issues. Changing some of the gun laws is not the only solution, but it's ignorant to at least not allow it into the conversation.
Here are some articles for your reading pleasure in which people went on rampages with knives and did kill people.
This one is about a janitor who killed 8 children with a knife in a primary school in Japan back in 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_school_massacre
This one is about a man in Belgium who stabbed two toddlers to death at a daycare in addition to harming some other adults and kids.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Toddlers+and+carer+die+in+knife+massacre.-a0192529169
And here is another one about a Brooklyn man who went on a stabbing rampage and killed a fair amount of people.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/brooklyn_son_goes_on_killer_rampage_Y6MLOc4zE0uI3rgagp1RJM/0
I can link this kind of stuff all day if you'd like.
Not once did I mention the constitution in my post. I could care less if you're sick of people hiding behind a document that is supposed to give us certain privileges.
Perhaps others are sick of you constantly berating everyone else just because they have differentiating opinions. Your sense of superiority and over inflated ego is honestly quite annoying. Furthermore, my example did not discredit my entire point.
The point was that gun laws don't prevent mentally ill people from attacking schools with whatever weapon they on get their hands on. The last time I checked there were other weapons that exist that can do harm besides a gun (bombs, knives, stun guns, etc.)
Sure, the Chinese attacker did not kill anyone, but he could have easily killed someone with a knife if he really wanted to. People are murdered and severely injured everyday with weapons other than guns. No need for the link I assure you I've already read about it.
Even planes have been hijacked with box cutters.
Do I really have to sit here and site every case in which someone was murdered with a weapon other than a gun, or how many attacks on other buildings/institutions that did not involve a gun?
Yes, this isn't a perfect world, and there will always be unstable people as you said. However, there will NEVER be an absence of guns. There will ALWAYS be a black market for them no matter what laws are passed. It makes no sense to deny those who fit the requirements to own a gun lawfully.
Why disarm the law abiding public? It will effectively make them fish in a barrel for the criminals who refuse to be disarmed. It makes more sense to treat the mentally unstable.
Also, it's rather presumptuous of you to assume that I'm also socially conservative. I'm not an Obama supporter by any means, but then again I didn't support Mitt either.
If you must know I'm for smaller government, am a fiscally conservative, but am socially liberal. I could care less if gays get married, I think women should have a choice in terms of early abortion (I don't agree with late term unless the mother or baby will die at birth,) and personally I think both pot and prostitution should be legal and regulated.
You Sir/Mam need to get your head out of your arse.
Kudatz, it would take me weeks to comment on all the ridiculous posts you have put up here over the years. Your a dinosaur as far as I'm concerned. Your irrelevant. Your a dying breed. Your views represent the lunatic fringe, not the majority. Your someone who simply can't accept the fact that the world you live in has changed and has left you behind. I don't worry about you because you just don't simply have any influence anymore. But, please keep posting; I find it wildly entertaining.
so 9/11, which the weapon of choice was boxcutters, would have you wanting to ban boxcutters? The malls have security officers but our schools cannot? Gun control will not lessen crime and murder. Look at Chicago.
and better security in Schools would certainly
help. Unfortunitly our politians, would never be able to come to agreement on how to fund, such a costly endeaver.
I'm so sick of people hiding behind a 200 year old document as their rationale for why they get to own deadly assault rifles. You had nothing to do with writing it, have never been educated in constitutional interpretation and have done nothing to support it. You were just lucky enough to be born here and thats arbitrary at best.
I find it interesting that the same people who scream for their gun rights are the same people who want to restrict everyone else's rights when it comes to other personal freedoms (religion, marital rights, adoption, abortion, drugs). You can't have it both ways.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248054/China-stabbing-22-children-elderly-woman-stabbed-outside-primary-school-Chinese-knifeman.html
Here is the main difference
Criminals have no regard for the law, hence why they're called criminals. Areas in the United States which have the highest crime rates have the strictest gun laws - imagine that.
Had someone been lawfully able to have a concealed gun near one of those schools that were shot up, then I bet they could have saved a lot of lives.
Additionally, I think it's best people keep in mind that people kill people, and guns are merely a tool.
For example, around the same time that all those poor little kindergarteners were killed in Connecticut, there was a man in China who grabbed a knife and stabbed 22 small children and 1 adult in a rampage at a school...
My point is that if someone wants to do harm, they're going to find a way to do it. This is not a perfect world. Banning guns, or further restricting them isn't the answer.
If anything, I think our failing mental health system needs a good look at.
If Lewis Long owned a gun.....he would only end up shooting himself !
What a clown.
"Long said gun ownership is one thing, but he cannot find a practical purpose to have some of the available weapons on the market."
I need to have the same weapons that the federal government has. THAT is who I ultimately need to protect myself from, and the reason the Second Amendment was written.
Mr Long is a disgrace of a citizen, he obviously did not understand the oath he took as a member of the military: "...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;"
Note Mr Long, nowhere does that say just parts, you took an oath to support and defend the ENTIRE Constitution against enemies foreign AND domestic. If you no longer think the Constitution is worth defending against ALL ENEMIES, renounce your citizenship and leave the country.
I for one still feel that it (the ENTIRE Constitution) is worth dying for. And I will if necessary.
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