Indisputable math of gun control
The politicians' knee jerk reaction to mass killings by gunmen is to restrict or remove gun ownership. Yet despite 32,000 motor vehicle deaths a year, no one talks about banning cars (or tobacco).
The following figures can be verified on government and Internet sites.
It's true, the USA is the #1 country in gun ownership, with 90 guns/100 people. But the #1 country in gun murders is not the USA -- it is gun-restricted Honduras with 90 murders per 100,000 people. At #2 is Venezuela (also gun controlled), with 53 murders per 100.00 people The USA ranks 111th of 218 , with 4.7 murders per 100,000 people. Murders rates are much higher in many of our strict gun-controlled cities. In Detroit, the murder rate is 54 per 100,000, New Orleans 52.5, St Louis 35.5, Newark-34.1, Oakland 31.5, Stockton 23.7, Kansas City 22.6, Philly 21.5, Cleveland 21.3, Memphis 20.2, Atlanta 19.0 and Chicago 18.5.
If Detroit were a country, it would top Venezuela for the #2 murder rate position. The murder rate of 4.7 in the USA is so low, despite the high rates in the listed cities, because there are so many cities without gun controls that citizens have the ability to protect themselves. Plano, Texas, has a very high ratio of gun ownership and has a murder rate of 0.4.
The evidence clearly illustrates that gun ownership saves lives, whereas gun restrictions costs lives. Not exactly what some politicians like to admit.
R.A. Valentine
Phenix City
National deterioration
This nation is no longer recognizable as the great nation it once was. Time and technology have taken their toll, but the lack of a proper education has done its part. Proper, meaning truthful teaching of our Constitution, the principles upon which this great nation was founded, the men who were our founding fathers and this nation's history.
The founding and history of our great nation should be a source of pride for every citizen. Sadly, it isn't because of what our youth are being taught in too many school systems. The president has done his part by announcing to the world that we are an arrogant nation and that we are not an exceptional people.
Our schools have become, to an alarming degree, vehicles for the indoctrination of socialist ideology. This is due, in part, to the intrusion of our socialist administration into the education of our children. The corrupt teachers union has contributed to the deterioration of our educational system. Too many professors, in our schools of higher learning, are purveyors of socialist ideology, the antithesis of democratic principles. The education of our youth should, rightfully, be with the states and local school boards. The federal government has no constitutional authority over education.
Parents share the blame, too, for their lack of attention to what the child is being taught and the qualification of the teacher. The result is that we gain an electorate indifferent to or incapable of choosing qualified people to represent them and their best interests. The right to vote is invaluable for the preservation of freedom: the essence of life. Therein lies the key to what sustains the greatness of a nation. More importantly, "quality of life" for all citizens is the requisite for any nation to maintain greatness. God bless America.
Charles Maupin
Columbus
Metra issues
There is an ongoing issue with "public transit" that has reached the point of causing the attorney general to be contacted. Although their reply will no doubt inform me they "cannot get involved with private issues."
How can a transit service sell 5 and 6 day passes as 7 day passes? What would happen if this type selling happened with the private sector?
Two other items really make me wonder about this "service": The display on the 5 p.m. run on route 4 shows "South Lumpkin Rd" does it not? However, the bus does not go on South Lumpkin. They took my $1.30, along with many others, at least for that day. Just like the wrong information being displayed on Route 9 saying "Sam's Club" when the bus does not go there. These practices need to be changed.
Ronald Cook
Columbus
Knowledge vs. wisdom
Christopher Kelly's recent commentary gave us examples of scientific knowledge that existed long before they were "confirmed" by modern science.
The sixth century B.C. mathematician Pythagoras said that the earth was a sphere. In the eighth century B.C., the prophet Isaiah said that God was above the "circle of the earth." What a team those two would have made.
In Job 38:16, God asked the patriarch a question: "Have you entered the springs of the sea? Have you walked in search of the depths?" God was comparing His unlimited knowledge with Job's limited scope.
The vent of the first sea spring was located and photographed in 1972 by the research sub "Alvin" on the Galapagos Rift. Since then, numerous sea springs have been discovered in the world's oceans. They discharge billions of gallons of mineral-rich water into the seas, providing chemical balance and nutrients for marine life.
Knowledge always has a dark side in the form of misuse and abuse. It is said that "wisdom is the proper use of knowledge." We have an abundance of knowledge these days but there doesn't seem to be an abundance of wisdom to go with it. C.S. Lewis described science and technology as "the fuel for dreams of power and ambition."
In Mark 10:6, Jesus said "From the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female." A profound statement of knowledge made long before Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859.
Jim Randall
Columbus
This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Indisputable math of gun control ."