Contrasting the recent Alligator poll, which found that 69 percent of respondents were against state permission for guns on campus, there have been few letters attempting to discredit the gun control position while ridiculing the holders of that opinion.
August Lee, whose letter was published Jan. 26, exemplifies those who are blind to reality. Take his casual dismissal of the Tucson shooter and Virginia Tech shooting as a misuse of weaponry. Actually, those guns were used to accomplish exactly what they were manufactured for — to kill. The gun lobby apparently wants to ensure more of the same, including the mother in Tampa last week who used a recently purchased pistol to shoot and kill her two teenage children.
As for Lee’s trotting out the usual National Rifle Association-fed emphasis on the second half of the one-sentence Second Amendment, people shouldn’t be buffaloed into accepting its supposed sanctity without first reading the opening phrase, a conditional clause, and then checking with a high school English teacher to determine what the implications are for the rest of the sentence.
Editor's note: This letter refers to this column.
