A nine year old child DID have a fight-back attitude. She saved the lives of her siblings. A gun would have made a big difference.
Best regards,
Mary Carpenter In Her Own Words about gun control:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K73pWPAYg0g
http://www.grnc.org/mary_carpenter_letter.htm
Mary Carpenter's letter to the North Carolina General Assembly:
All the gun laws you can imagine cannot change the heart of a killer and you know it.
Until man's heart is changed, we will be like sheep led to the slaughter without our weapons of defense.
May you stand before God and man as my two precious grandchildren's killer if you pass any more gun legislation that will make me a felon should I own a handgun or any other gun for that matter.
Fifty college students shot, more than thirty dead? Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that it's time for more serious gun laws, ones with real teeth.
From now on, it's time for a really steep fine for anyone who fails to carry an effective defensive weapon, with jail time for repeat offenders. I don't think the death penalty for shirkers would be appropriate, but should a preventable death occur that could have been stopped by armed intervention and through criminal negligence an unarmed citizen was unable to appropriately intervene, yeah, maybe a life sentence or death penalty should apply.
It's a duty and responsibility of citizenship to not only take care of yourself, but to be able to assist another. I don't think that those with religious or other deeply held philosophical scruples against doing should be forced to do something against their beliefs, but there needs to be a way to tell them from the stupid or lazy who've just forgotten or misplaced their basic tool of citizenship. So a reasonably available exemption license should be available for those people once they demonstrate their sincerity, and something temporary for those medically or otherwise temporarily incapable of effectively defending themselves; they can get a license to not carry a weapon in public, as required by law.
The fee for such permits can be used to offset the public cost of protecting those who can't help protect themselves or others, with possible fee waivers for those experiencing simple temporary interruptions in their ability, for medical or other similar reasons.