A Letter to Rep. Terri Proud
I just read your statements in the Tucson Weekly (The Skinny, Jan. 13) to the effect that if more people walked around with guns, we'd all be safer. You even go as far as saying that lives could have been saved on Jan. 8 if someone else in the crowd had been carrying a gun.
The fact is, someone was, and only through luck was an innocent person spared being shot!
Joseph Zamudio had a gun, and he told the Wall Street Journal: "When he realized there was an incident occurring ... Mr. Zamudio thought he could help, since he was legally carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic."
However, when Zamudio saw a man holding a gun, he realized that the man was a bystander who had wrestled the weapon away from the shooter. Zamudio commented that he was lucky to have made the right call. "I made a lot of really big decisions really fast," he told Fox News.
Ironically, he says that one of the reasons he hesitated was he feared that if he drew his weapon, the police might have thought he was the perpetrator!
That's what happens in the chaos: The wrong person can be shot, or you can be shot by someone mistaking you for a second gunman! It happens all too often among trained soldiers. Among untrained civilians?! That's crazy! I don't want myself and those I love saved from dying by gunshot through mere LUCK!
Arizona ranks just about last in gun controls, and between second and seventh in per-capita gun deaths, depending on varying sources! Doesn't sound like a good tradeoff.
I am not saying all guns should be banned! However, Arizona doesn't require background checks for private gun sales; it doesn't prohibit assault weapons or high-capacity magazines; it doesn't impose a waiting period or limitations on the number of guns that one can buy in a single purchase. And then the state passes a law allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons without a permit!? Why not just let anyone who wants to drive get into a car and go?!
What we need are representatives with the guts to stand up for rational, reasoned controls.
Frank Jude Boccio
