This letter is in response to Ms. Kistenmacher’s column. Do you want a police state? Do you want to allow the government the ability to rule this country unopposed by anyone?

Well, I didn’t think so. But this is what can happen if you were to ban all guns as she says. Must she forget this country was founded by a bunch of “gun owning good ol’ boys,” as I’m sure the liberals would put it, that used their guns to fight tyranny.

Take a look at Germany in the 1930s. Hitler banned all guns, and look what happened. What if the Serbian police had decided to put down the people’s uprising against Milosevic. There would have been nothing the people could do because they have very tight gun laws in Yugoslavia. The liberals would say “Well, you can just peacefully protest.” However, Tiananmen Square in China shows you what an unarmed protester can do when faced with armed police and military.

Or examine the hot bed of the Middle East. The Israelis for years have been disarming Palestinians. What if instead of rocks, the Palestinians had more rifles? There would be more Israeli casualties resulting in a higher willingness to negotiate.

Let’s look at some facts, such as 99.8 percent of all guns and 99.4 percent of all hand guns will not be used to commit a violent crime in a given year. Assault weapons are used to commit only 3 percent of homicides, far less than knives which constitutes 13 percent, bare hands 5 percent and clubs 4 percent. Should we ban knives, clubs and bare hands?

Citizens kill twice as many criminals as police do, but the error rate (shooting somebody by mistake) was 2 percent for citizens and 11 percent for police.

States such as Florida, Texas and Iowa, who have concealed weapons laws (laws that allow licensed users to carry), have lower violent crime rates than states that do not.

Yes, I can imagine people carrying guns everywhere, but put yourself in a criminal’s shoes. If you have to worry about whether the citizen you are about to assault is armed aren’t you going to think twice?

The National Institute of Justice found that three-fifths of felons polled said a criminal is not going to mess around with an armed citizen.

Do gun control laws work? The answer is no, because most guns used in crime (89 percent) are obtained through illegal means.

Why don’t we now talk about abortion, as Ms. Kistenmacher likes to call it? They speak of this so-called right they have, but it is merely a right to kill, and it is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, whereas my right to own a gun which is explicitly stated in the Constitution does not grant me any right to kill, nor do I wish to.

Al Gore and Bill Clinton for years have been trying to tighten gun control laws, but we don’t need more laws because there are already laws on the books making every crime a crime, and it’s the enforcement of current laws that need to be stepped up before we rush to create more laws.

On the issue of the Founding Fathers, many saw the price of the freedoms I hold dear, and just might say to you today — people die for freedom; it is just the price we must pay.

Many people have paid dearly for the rights we have, and I know that I would rather die or see somebody in my family die than live in a gun-banning police state.

I guess that is the price I’m willing to pay. What about you?

Nick Vrana

Junior

Political Science