Be respectful of others' views and choices.
 #111221  by Mac4949
 
Dear Senator _________,

With due respect, SB163 is an insult to me and thousands of other law abiding gun owners in this state. Why do you insist on punishing the innocent for crimes of the guilty? How much has Maryland's similar bill reduced homicides? Maybe a more obvious question: do you honestly believe criminals or mentally deranged people will care about obeying such a law in Delaware? Connecticut's gun laws did nothing to prevent the Sandy Hook shooter from stealing guns from a relative. Didn’t work in CT. California's gun laws did nothing to prevent the San Bernadino terrorists from bringing guns from other states. Didn’t work in CA. Illinois' extreme gun control laws have done nothing to reduce a horrible homicide rate in Chicago. Hasn’t worked in IL. The Orlando Pulse Night Club and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School we're both was a gun free zones. How well did that work? The Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas was a gun free zone. That didn't work either. The focus of SB163 is sorely misdirected.

AR15 style modular, light weight, sporting rifles are favorites of many hunters and sport shooters alike yet you still demonized these guns as weapons of mass destruction and do nothing about the user. It’s time to stop penalizing everyone for the actions of a few! Outlawing these guns makes as much sense as outlawing large cargo trucks on I-95. The driver of such a cargo truck killed 86 people in Nice, France (2016). Similar incidents happened twice in London, fortunately with less carnage. One of the London incidents was actually STOPPED by a gun! The “weapons” are the distorted minds of the perpetrators. Guns and trucks were merely the tools of choice.

Need I mention anything more than the numbers 9/11? The tools of choice in those incidents were airplanes! How about Oklahoma City (1995) and Madrid (2004)? The tools in those cases were explosives. The weapon is in the mind of the user. SB163 simply proposes to outlaw a tool, to penalize law abiding citizens, and STILL it ignores the weapon. These incidents are well known. One should research them before one votes on a bill that will do nothing to prevent gun violence. SB163 merely proposes to prevent guns, but not violence. A vote for SB163 is a reactionary attempt to achieve a utopian myth. One cannot legislate “safe space”!

Focus your efforts on the weapon, not the tool of choice. Look to your colleagues in the House. HB302 focuses on mental stability. That bill is correctly focused!

Lastly, consider history before you repeat it. In 1920 the U.S. Congress passed the 18th amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors. That amendment was intended to reduce crime and related social problems. How well did that work? It had exactly the opposite effect! Passage of that amendment triggered an explosive rise in organized crime and thousands of speakeasy clubs sprang up in cities all over the country.