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Lowest Common Denominator Approach

After the heinous crimes committed in Newtown it's understandable that people are reacting emotionally, but we need better from our legislators and it's clear some are looking in the wrong direction and pursuing their anti-gun agendas. As we've seen, State Senator Ed Meyer has particularly onerous plans for his gun-owning constituents [Meyer's Jan. 31 column "Gun Use and Abuse" proposed limiting guns to a single round].

History shows that banning anything rarely works. Alcohol prohibition failed as has the war on drugs. Banning abortion won't stop the practice and further restrictions on firearms will be no more helpful. All the above prohibitions can accomplish is drive the issues underground, making them more dangerous and highly profitable.

The proposed measures seem intended as collective punishment for responsible legal gun owners and adopting a lowest common denominator approach treats us all as children.

How quickly we forget poor Dr. William Petit and the terrible events that befell his unfortunate family in Cheshire in 2007 and that this was the motivation for many people to protect themselves by becoming armed. In truth, all these outrageous crimes are committed by mentally ill people and dealing with this is where changes will make us all safer.

We also hear politicians trying to confuse us by linking our Second Amendment rights to hunting. Last I checked, there was no mention of hunting anywhere in our Constitution, let alone the Second Amendment. To be clear, the Second Amendment is quite specific in that it provides for citizens to be armed so as to be able to protect themselves from an over-reaching government, perhaps such as the one we presently see in power.

Our government needs to be reminded that its first responsibility is to defend our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees to us as American citizens.

David Roberts Guilford