Gun owners help prevent crimes

By Neil A. Dickinson Sr., Henderson

Saturday, June 14, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

This is a reply to the writer of the Tuesday letter “Firearms do not make us safer”:

I will admit that not all guns go into the right hands. This is not only proved by the slayings of the two Metro Police officers and other citizens recently, but also by the thousands of criminals who have continued to break the law by using them to rob, rape, assault and kill innocent people. This is illustrated all the time in the media. But what doesn’t get the same “air time” is the crimes that have been prevented by law-abiding people who own and use guns legally and responsibly.

Not everyone should have a gun. I refer back to the criminal elements I mentioned earlier as proof. However, those are the people who disregard the present gun laws. Do you actually think another law will stop these people from using a gun in the commission of their crimes? The only ones ultimately affected are those who follow the law, and they could be more vulnerable to these crimes.

No, owning a legal gun will not prevent all crimes from happening. The heroic gentleman who died attempting to help the slain officers attests to that. But how many lives are saved and crimes are stopped by people such as him that we never hear about?

It is sad that our society has deteriorated to where the law-abiding citizenry has to consider armed self-defense when the police can’t be there at the time of the crime. But you can’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.