On Friday 12/28/12, I raised the flag in my back yard to full mast. I had it lowered to half mast in honor and respect for the innocent citizens of Newtown, Connecticut who were brazenly, wantonly and uselessly gunned down by a demonically motivated individual, a coward who didn't even have the courage to shoot it out with others who also had guns.
Out of deference to the bereaved family members, I wanted to hold off entering the resulting battle that was sure to come over gun control and, in keeping, I offer my very deepest condolences to people who are suffering something I cannot not even begin to fathom.
The man who stood and slaughtered innocent children face-to-face is now being described as "disturbed" and "mentally ill," and while I'll not deny that he was all those things, I submit to you that such a vile act could have only been hatched and orchestrated from the very pits of hell itself.
Of course, the well meaning, but naïve, people who believe the problem lies in the private ownership of firearms are out there beating the drum, while those whose purposes are not as noble are leading the way and self-serving politicians are coming out of the woodwork just itching to pass another meaningless piece of feel-good legislation that will mean about as much to illegal gun owners as the ones already on the books now.
Our problem is not a lack of gun laws; we have enough now to paper the south wall of the Grand Canyon. We just need to enforce them.
How about we start at the top by forcing Eric Holder to tell the truth about Fast and Furious?
How about we bust the people who deal guns out of the trunks of their cars on inner city street corners?
How about the Obama administration setting an example about how it should be done by cleaning up his hometown of Chicago, a city with some of the toughest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. Where law-abiding citizens can't buy a handgun for protection, but street thugs have no problem at all.
I will be the first to admit that, like in every other business, there are unscrupulous gun dealers who do things they know are wrong and put guns in the hands of people who will either use them offensively or sell them to others who will.
They should be identified and put out of business, period.
I am aware there are areas that need cleaning up, but another unenforced law is not going to make any difference.
With the greatest of respect and deference, I would like to address those who think that doing away with the private ownership of guns is the answer to our problems.
The people who are causing the most problems did not obtain their firearms by legal means. They were bought off the thriving black market after being stolen or otherwise illegally obtained for resale.
Selling guns on the street is a felony already; how much more illegal can you make it?
Will another law or gaggle of laws stop illicit gun trafficking?
Have they stopped illicit heroin trafficking?
Have they even stopped human trafficking?
The truth of the matter is that a law is no more potent that the will to enforce it, and as long as the courts continue turning violent criminals back out on the street, as long as parole boards take only a cursory look at the mental health of the parolees, as long as we continue to tie the hands of the men and women who stand between us and the jungle and try to tell them how to do a job so dangerous that we can't possibly comprehend it or the split second decisions between life and death they have to make on a regular basis, we will continue our descent into chaos.
We've got to, somehow, get past the cosmetic, "Look at us, aren't we wonderful?" superficial and meaningless media-happy flaccid efforts and do something fruitful.
Does anybody really believe that the gun buy-backs do anything except get the Saturday night specials and other junk off the street and make a down payment on a more sophisticated illegal weapon?
Politicians can pass laws from now until the end of time, but, if they're not applied and enforced to take the people who are actually doing the killing out of society, it will make absolutely no difference.
I have owned guns since I was 12 years old. The first thing I was taught was safety and responsibility. In over 60 years of owning guns I have never shot anything with them but animals and targets, and I am in the vast majority of legal gun owners.
Gun owners like me are not the problem, and taking our guns away will not reduce gun crime, but increase it as criminals realize they're the only game in town and rob businesses and invade homes at will.
Why do you think they pick schools and other vulnerable places to start with? They know nobody can shoot back at them.
Think about it, America.
We need to back off, cool off and make some rational decisions - and soon - before our constitutional rights fall into the hands of an unpredictable Supreme Court that seems to be more concerned with the legacy of the court than the welfare of the American people.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
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