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Issues
and Events at Home and Around the Globe"
Perspicacity:
[pers-pi-cass-ity] Clear
insight; Acute mental vision.
Paradigms: [pair-a-dimes]
Perspectives; Viewpoints;
Ways of seeing things.
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GUN CONTROL:
Rash of
Recent Killings
Make 'Case' for Gun Control
September 4, 2001
(With footnote September 12, 2001)
By Rand Green
P&P Editor/Publisher
NIKOLAY SOLTYS of Sacramento, California was only briefly on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He was captured by police on August 30, 2001, after just 10 days on the run and confessed to killing six family members.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said the 27-year old suspect admitted to killing his pregnant wife at the couple's Sacramento duplex on August 20. He then went to the home of his aunt and uncle in nearby Rancho Cordova where, he killed not only them but two nine-year-old cousins. He also acknowledged that he later killed his three-year-old son, before making his way to his parent's house in Citrus Heights, where he was taken into custody.
The murder weapon was a knife.
One day after Mr. Soltys was captured, a 34 year old caretaker in a group home in Fresno, California was murdered. William Randall Carr, 24, who was a resident at the group home, is in custody and has been charged with the slaying.
The murder weapon was an ax.
In Arlington Texas, Terry Lee Hankins, 26, was charged on August 30 with the shooting deaths of his estranged wife, her 13-year-old son, and her 11-year-old daughter. The suspect then gave police information that led them to the body of his sister who police say was killed last October 1, and his father, who was killed a week later.
The suspect's sister was the first in the series of slayings, and the murder weapon was a car jack.
And in Sioux City, Iowa, a 23-year old man, Adam Moss, was arrested on August 31 on suspicion of killing his girlfriend, and her five children ages 12, 11, 9, 7 and 6.
The murder weapon was a hammer.
It should be obvious to anyone, from these incidents, that it is weapons, and not people, who are responsible for such murders. The perpetrators are merely victims. The poor creatures were undoubtedly under a lot of stress (unlike the rest of us who exercise more restraint), and ought to be pitied and pampered, not punished.
But most importantly, they should never have been exposed to the ready availability of any device that might be used to do harm to someone. It is only because our homes and work places are filled with so many potentially lethal weapons of every description that otherwise decent folks (in spite of their long rap sheets) develop an uncontrollable urge to turn violent and become brutal mass murderers.
It all makes a strong case not only for more gun control but for tight restrictions on any other form of potential murder weapon.
If only Sacramento County, California, had laws requiring a cooling off period before buying knives, six people, including three children, might be alive today.
If Fresno, California, had required registration of axes, a man might not have been killed.
If Arlington, Texas had outlawed car jacks, a woman might still be alive, and the suspected serial killer might never have experienced the bloodthirst that drove him to commit four other murders.
And if Sioux City had just had the foresight to institute a buy back program to take hammers off the streets, the lives of a woman and her six children would surely have been spared.
It just makes sense that some sort of controls be imposed on any potential murder weapon. Scissors, baseball bats, pipes, pillows, two-by-fours, guitar strings, garbage bags, rocks, icicles -- all of these should be strictly regulated, with severe criminal penalties imposed on anyone who possesses them without the necessary permit.
Only by doing so can we be assured of a safer, less violent society.
Oh, did we mention boots? By all means, we should require some sort of trigger locks on boots, so some drunk won't come home and kick his pregnant wife to death.
And while we're at it, we should all exercise our social responsibility by suing the manufacturer of any knife, ax, hammer, jack, pipe, pillow or plastic bag that inflicts death on someone in the hands of a hapless, helpless perpetrator such as those cited above. After all, just like gun manufacturers, the makers of these other weapons are surely responsible for any crimes committed with them.
It could be a bit of a problem, though trying to drag the maker of rocks and icicles into court. But then, it's not a perfect world.
Still, as a society we must do all we can to keep not just guns but all weapons or potential weapons out of the hands of peaceful, law abiding citizens. That is the only way to be certain that violent criminals intent on doing bodily harm to someone will be deprived of the means to carry out their goals.
FOOTNOTE
(Sept. 12, 2001)
As if to make our case for us, the events of September 11, far and away the worst mass murder in American history, has added box cutters to the list. Perhaps the manufacturers of box cutters should be brought to justice for making weapons of mass destruction? Good grief, folks. If this doesn't wake you up, what will?
Our Readers Respond
Click on to read a response to this article from a Murder victim's brother.
Copyright © 2001 by Rand Green Communications
| "Scissors,
baseball bats, pipes, pillows, two-by-fours, guitar strings, garbage bags, rocks, icicles
-- all of these should be strictly regulated, with severe criminal penalties imposed on
anyone who possesses them without the necessary permit." --Rand Green P&P Editor/Publisher |
| "Perhaps
the manufacturers of box cutters should be brought to justice for making weapons of mass
destruction? Good grief, folks. If this doesn't wake you up, what will?" --Rand Green P&P Editor/Publisher |
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Rand Green,
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
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