Our Christmas Obession With Guns

Our Christmas Obsession With Guns

As our
nation mourns the loss of twenty innocent children and six adults in the
aftermath of the senseless slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut, it comes as no
surprise that the subject of gun proliferation, especially assault weapons,
will be on the front burner, and rightly so! 
The ban on the sale of assault rifles expired in 1994 and from what I
understand, crimes committed with those weapons decreased during that time.  We are now at the crossroads of another
decision – should we once again ban the sale of these weapons of mass
destruction?  We may not agree on a lot
of subjects in our country but when it comes to assault weapons, there seems to
be some agreement that sales should be restricted to police and the military.

Our
obsession with guns has even permeated our traditional Christmas songs and
movies.   Bing Crosby sang that a “wish of Barney and Ben was a pair of
Hopalong boots and a pistol that
shoots”, from the song “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”.  And of course who can forget Ralphie’s
request for a red Ryder BB gun from the movie “A Christmas Story”.  A group called the Vandals sang “A gun for Christmas” which I’m sure was not covered on a Johnny Mathis Christmas
album!

Children
used to sing “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”.  Those same children are now adults and some
are singing “All I want for Christmas is a semi-automatic rifle”! 

Maybe it’s
finally time to restore some sense of sanity to this issue of gun control.  And yes, I know we don’t want to trample on
the Second Amendment but when our forefathers were drafting that provision they
were looking at muskets and not AK-47’s! 
And back then they were probably singing “Santa Claus is coming to town”
and not “Santa Claus is coming to the firing range”!  How about having a New Year’s resolution that
we no longer have to endure the carnage that has been sweeping our country
attributed to the sale and distribution of assault weapons!  We owe our children and ourselves nothing less!

Bill Kalmar