Guns and the U.S. Senate Race

Contributed and the opinions of Mike Pond, Chairman of the 49th Ward Young Democrats

We have seen the present and it does not work. On Tuesday, August 24, a Florida woman was critically wounded while her two children were in her car. 31 year-old Teri Lee Moody was entering her parent’s home in Hudson, Florida early in the morning when her father shot her thinking it was an intruder.

Meanwhile, here in Illinois, Alan Keyes is attacking “liberal” Democrats for calling for more gun control, while the transplanted Republican proposes allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons and automatic weapons. There is no doubt that when George Earl Ingram, shot his daughter, he was doing so to protect his family against an unknown invader. Once he realized it was his daughter, however, don’t you think he wished he could take it all back? Perhaps he wished he hadn’t owned a gun at all. Perhaps he wished that he had just called the police instead!

I understand our Republican Senate candidate from Maryland is eager to protect and promote our second amendment right to bear arms, heck, so was the Michigan Militia, the NRA, Timothy McVeigh, the Nichols brothers and a host of other people who use the amendment to suit their own agendas and NOT the principles upon which this country was founded.

While there are many responsible gun owners out there, firearms should not be considered as the last line of defense to fend of intruders, as the scenario in Florida indicates. Americans have the right to defend themselves, and should for all practical purposes, but we need to closely examine why there is a need for concealed and automatic weapons in an era of already flawed gun control. The last thing we need, Mr. Keyes, are armed citizens using their concealed weaponry to solve issues of road rage, confrontations, gambling debts, workplace issues, etc. Do we really want to live in a society with metal detectors in EVERY building?

Please, if nothing else, let’s not consider gun control for us, but for the children of Teri Lee Moody, who might wind up without a mother.