If it's not yours, don't touch it

Hey, no gun lying around has killed anyone — it has to be picked up. As a child, my family had loaded guns upstairs and down. I was raised with a strong respect for other people's property — since I did not own it, I was not allowed to touch it. That even included my grandfather's three-knob radio.

We were not allowed to have toy guns but we were taught to shoot a .22 starting at age 5 and as our age increased, so did the caliber. Our uncle and our dad, a WWII veteran, were our instructors. Except for the television and stereo, I raised my family the same way: IF YOU DON'T OWN IT, YOU DON'T TOUCH IT! It goes without saying, if one of my children had been diagnosed with ADD or anything more serious, all guns would have been in the safe. Why were the guns belonging to the Connecticut lady not locked in a safe or stored safely away from the house? She knew that her son had serious psychological problems.

Many schools around the United States have had armed security for more than 30 years. We must fire those who are now defunding the school security programs. Yuma, Ariz., has armed police officers in their school system and the Wichita, Kan., school system has had the same for more than 20 years that I know of. To hell with the sticker on a window. Give me an armed police officer protecting our children in the hallway. With an armed police officer for school protection, that Connecticut puke would have been dead inside the front door and 26 innocent lives would have been saved.

Every year, more than 1,000,000 citizens avoid bodily harm and possible death by using the type of guns that many in Congress demand to outlaw. Do they want a Chicago Nation where only outlaws will have guns?

I'll give you the facts and you develop the logic pertaining to the USA's Ten Big Killers:

• Tobacco use: 520,000

• Medical errors: 195,000

• Unintentional injuries: 118,021

• Alcohol abuse: 107,400

• Motor vehicle accidents: 34,485

• Unintentional poisoning: 31,758

• Drug abuse: 25,500

• Unintentional falls: 24,792

• Non-firearm homicides: 16,799. Using logic, outlaw these and above first.

• Firearm homicides: 11,493

According to the FBI, the No. 1 weapon used in violent crimes ... is a baseball bat. Stop sucking up to and cowering down to those who want to destroy the United States and our Constitution!

John Hillman

Yuma