Published on Monday, April 14, 2008

Pritchard made the correct choice on bill

By LETTER WRITER

Recent efforts to pass legislation restricting the rights of Illinois gun owners are misdirected.
Rep. Robert Pritchard made the correct choice in voting against HB4393, a bill to limit, among other things, the legal purchase of firearms to one per month.

This act would be in addition to the patchwork of thousands upon thousands of laws passed to control violence by controlling law-abiding citizens. Criminals have not been impressed. The Virginia Tech murderer bought his firearms in a state that has had a “one gun per month” law for years. A firearm dealer in Annandale, Va., printed the slogan “Buy One Gun A Month – It’s The Law” on his business cards.

As many have pointed out, gun control is not about guns – it’s about control. Attempting to address violence in our society by attacking the citizens least likely to behave in an antisocial manner is a fruitless endeavor. Efforts to stop crime by restricting the activities of law-abiding citizens is just incremental repression that would lead to the implementation of a police state.

Gene Desavouret
Malta resident