Self-defense

First of all, let me make this clear. We all agree what happened in Connecticut is a terrible tragedy. All pro-gun and anti-gun people agree about this.

I guess I don't understand why anyone isn't bringing up the one and only true way this tragedy could have at the very least been slowed or completely avoided.

The real tragedy is that someone in this school -- be it a teacher, principal, janitor or any law-abiding citizen -- would have been allowed to have the right to carry a gun and would have been allowed to protect these children, instead of being totally defenseless.

I'll bet the school had the signs on all the doors that don't allow guns in the school. Do these signs ever deter one of these people? All it tells this person is that no one inside has a gun and no one is going to stop him. That's why in these shootings these are always the places that are targeted.

I also understand that the doors were locked. He just shot the glass out and entered, which he could have done with a big rock or hammer.

I know some are going to argue we can't allow someone to have a gun inside because a child could get their hands on it. In hunter safety or in the right-to-carry class, you are taught how to not let that happen by keeping the gun on your person or locked up, with ammunition locked up separately. Isn't that very remote chance of an accident worth the risk to protect our children from a massacre?

The other argument we'll hear is we don't want a shootout between a right-to-carry person and this individual. Well, in almost every case like the one in Connecticut, as soon as they see or hear a threat, they go ahead and take their own life or flee. I believe the people who perform these terrible acts of violence are cowards just trying to become famous and don't want to be captured. They are looking for the shock factor. What bigger shock than killing children?

Why are legal right-to-carry gun owners and the NRA so against any more gun laws? Because we know they won't work, and so they'll only make more and more gun laws until the day comes when legal gun owners won't be able to have a gun, either because of cost, red tape or bans.

Guns are here. They've been here for hundreds of years. There is no way to get rid of guns. It is our Second Amendment right to carry and bear arms. Our Founding Fathers knew the importance, and it's no less important today. Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. There's a lot of good in our world, but there will always be some bad too. But if allowed, we can protect ourselves and others.

Rick Cunningham

Ellis