Published: October 09, 2008 06:48 pm            

Reader's Forum: Oct. 10, 2008

TERRE HAUTE — Obama’s record clearly ‘anti-gun’

I vehemently disagree with John Gregg’s letter published Oct. 5 wherein he cited Obama’s strong support for our Second Amendment rights. If such is true, then Obama is the first leopard I have known of to actually change his spots.

There are countless actions and comments by Mr. Obama that show his contempt for our right to keep and bear arms. I have maintained a file of several, and a few instances follow:

Over the years, Barack Obama has either voiced support for, or voted to enact, laws to ban all handguns, ban the sale or transfer of all semiautomatic firearms, ban the right-to-carry in every state, nationwide, ban firearms in the home, even for self-protection. And he voted against a “self-defense exception” which absolves folks of violating gun bans when their reason for violating those bans is to fend off criminal attack in the home.

Go to Obama’s Web site and you’ll see his claims of respect for your rights, claims which are, at best, misleading. Obama’s Web site claims, “He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.”

But, as the bumper sticker says, “The Second Amendment ain’t about duck hunting.”

In 1996, Obama’s Illinois state senate campaign answered a questionnaire indicating his support for a blanket ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns in Illinois. In 2000, Obama sponsored a “one gun a month” law to ration the Second Amendment rights of the law-abiding citizens of Illinois.

Obama has supported bans on ammunition magazines, gun-lock mandates, renewal of the 1994 Clinton gun ban and California-style gun registration. He voted against confirmation of both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court, and then refused to sign the pro-gun “friend-of-the-court” brief filed by 55 other senators and 250 House members in the District of Columbia v. Heller gun ban case.

(Yet, while Obama’s disdain for Second Amendment freedom appears limitless, his attitude toward armed, violent criminals has been one of benign neglect, at best.)

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the criminal use of firearms declined as the number of states issuing concealed-carry permits increased. Yale researcher John Lott addressed the relationship between gun possession and crime, and summed up his research with the title of his book, “More Guns, Less Crime.”

The relationship between victimization and the ability to defend oneself is timeless. In Commonplace Book, Thomas Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from his seminal work, “On Crimes and Punishment”: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes … Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

Ronald Reagan said: “You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up, and if you don’t actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time. … It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience.”

— Carl Nickey

Brazil



Great thing done for West Vigo

I would like to start off by saying “thank you” to Mr. Tanoos and the Vigo County School Board for agreeing to use the bond refinancing money to help upgrade the facilities at West Vigo High School. West Vigo has been in need of a practice field for the football program for many years, and now is the time.

I know that many people are questioning the need for a practice field, but please be assured that it’s not just because T.H. North and T.H. South have practice fields, but because of the safety concerns we have during baseball practices and games. You can only imagine a football team of approximately 60 players, practicing in the outfield, day in and day out for several months, will not only tear up the grass, but also cause holes and ruts throughout the entire outfield.

Now just imagine the conditions of the field when it rains during football practice. Coach Cobb has done a great job trying to prevent our baseball field from being completely destroyed, by practicing in different areas of the outfield. The baseball field is not just used by the football team, but also is used during physical education classes. For outside activities, the physical education classes have no other place to go, and a new practice facility will help eliminate the problem.

Coach DeGroote has not only built one of the top baseball programs in the state of Indiana, but he spends many hours trying to repair all the damages caused in the outfield. These are safety concerns that we deal with everyday.

All I ask is that before you make any judgment on this issue, view the conditions for yourself.

Thank you once again to Mr. Tanoos and the Vigo County School Board for making our baseball field a safer place to play baseball.

— Kenny Pearson

Assistant coach

West Vigo baseball



Great success for 2008 Oktoberfest

The German Oberlandler Club thanks the large crowds of people who made our 36th Oktoberfest a success. They enjoyed the live music of Eddie Korosa Jr. and His Boys from Illinois and Linda Lee and the Golden-aires from Frankenmuth, Mich., as well as the good food prepared and served by our members.

We thank the 136 Red Hatters who opened the event with their Chicken Dance, the LIFE students from the Conservatory of Music for their beautiful organ music and Doug and Sally Weatherston for their entertaining story time.

Thanks also to Clabber Girl for use of their festival marketplace, the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation and the Terre Haute Police departments, Dever Distributing and Gordon Food Service. We also appreciate the promotion and coverage of the event by the Tribune- Star and other Wabash Valley newspapers, television and radio stations.

We invite everyone to return to our 32nd Strassenfest opening April 30 and our 37th Oktoberfest on Sept. 17-18-19 in 2009 at the same location — Clabber Girl Festival Marketplace in downtown Terre Haute.

— Charles “Al” Brown

President

German Oberlandler Club

        

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