The Willow Glen Resident

Not all teens learn ways of violence

By Jon Beltran

My first reaction to the Point of View article written by Deborah Taylor-Hollis ("We can't change kids, so get rid of guns," June 24) was, to quote the author, "Oh, God." The reasoning in her article concerning "kids" and guns is so flawed it borders on the ridiculous. The other issue is her complete lack of logic or knowledge concerning guns. If world leaders used her line of emotional thought, World War III would have happened already.

First, I would like to take issue with her assumption that every teen in the United States, nay, the world, acts as she has stated. "When an angry teen acts out, he or she will take a car and drive off a cliff, grab a knife and stab at the anger, take the blind rage and use anything to turn it outward--or inward, with pills, ropes, car exhaust, swan dives off handy buildings." With this absolute reasoning, I am surprised that we have any teenagers left. Geez, I thought all we needed to do was to get rid of guns; now we have another list to contend with later. Using her logic, we will have to ban cars, cliffs, knives, pills, ropes, car exhausts and those Saturday Night Special swan dives off those handy cliffs. Otherwise, we will end up with a "nobody left" generation. But that shouldn't matter; if we just save one life, it will be worth it. Better get those bus tokens out, and don't order a tough steak.

The actual percentage of teenagers doing these terrible acts with firearms is actually extremely small. The large majority of teens are very responsible. The ones who are not--well, there are many issues at hand as to why: families torn by divorce, emotional or physical abuse, abandonment, drugs, lack of role models and personal responsibility, to name just a few.

The media are also culprits that seem to slither away at any mention of their own responsibility in shaping attitudes of susceptible youths. For many years I have had numerous discussions with teenagers concerning firearms and weapons. What always amazed me was their knowledge of such weapons and their capabilities. Who were these teens? They were inmates at the local juvenile hall. They were involved in crimes from petty theft to murder. When asked how they came to be so knowledgeable, the response was movies and music.

Movies have for years now glorified gun carnage, using the most sophisticated weapons, showing the closest and slowest film clips of exploding flesh. Movies have also instilled and glorified the attitude that if you're mad, kill; if someone pisses you off, kill; if you want power and respect, kill. But what have we done about this blatant media assault on our children? Nothing.

Now, Ms. Taylor-Hollis' attitude that "gun education" is junk is an extremely irresponsible statement. Any safety education should be lauded, not condemned. Her solution? Just get rid of guns. Using her logic, if one didn't like gays, then it would be OK not to educate about AIDS or to just get rid of gays. So, she wants to ban guns and rid them from the country. Forget about the posturing and the symbolic ranting: How would she suggest accomplishing this feat? It is estimated that there are over 200 million firearms in the United States. But more importantly, gun bans and regulations only affect citizens who obey laws. This may be a shock, so sit down. Criminals don't obey laws. That is why they are called criminals.

Whether their guns are stolen or AK-47s from Chinese shipping containers arriving in San Diego, criminals will get them. I remember when I was a police officer, a Mexican national was arrested for manufacturing automatic machine guns in a garage here in San Jose. No serial numbers, no flashy stuff, just fully operational weapons. Of course, he wasn't selling them here--no demand for them. But in Mexico, he was getting over a thousand dollars for each one.

A recent study, one that even the anti-gun groups haven't been able to denounce, showed that firearms are used/displayed approximately two million times a year to thwart a criminal act. If guns were banned, how many would die at the hands of armed criminals? And if you use the "England gun ban" argument, well, Switzerland requires each household to have a fully automatic assault weapon at immediate disposal. I can't recall hearing about too many shootings in that country. I wonder why? But then I guess that facts about guns and firearm defense don't wash, so let's move on.

Taylor-Hollis talks about how fast and efficiently guns kill. Well, I guess you have never seen a vehicle accident. A 1998 Suburban has a lot more killing power than an Uzi. Heck, so does a Yugo, for that matter. I'll bet if our kids had been inundated over the last 25 years with movies glorifying vehicles running people down, we would be discussing an entirely different subject. I would ask Taylor-Hollis if she has ever had just one drink, glass of wine or some Nyquil and gotten behind the wheel. If so, she was a bigger threat to my family than a law-abiding gun owner or a criminal. Or what if she has ever left the Drano unsecured, her alcohol in an unlocked cabinet? Or if her kids have ever seen her drink, smoke (if she does either) or speed to a soccer game? If she has ever let her kids watch a violent movie, she is courting disaster.

She needs to start thinking more logically and begin to look closer to home as to the true threats to her children and ours. Let us absolutely discuss serious issues that affect our society. But let us do it in an arena of facts and not one of blatant emotional hysteria. This does nothing more than to push us further apart from reaching solutions concerning society's problems.

Jon Beltran is a Willow Glen resident.

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