Nashville Metro Council and Posting Parks

[backwoodsman]

Well ,I just cant sit and not say anything to these uninformed wealthy liberals regulating our liberties or lack of them, I sent the following to all ,not that all needed to hear this I know this personally ,however not to single out, I sent this to all,the last stinging letter I sent out to the council, I only received 3 replies , positive ones, the rest,abstained. As follows:

Subject : Local park closing to HCP holders

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The subject line I will assume if I may ,shall preclude introduction to the topic.

I suggest we approach this topic with reason,based on history and facts! To approach this with sheer emotion, which is what I see from the knee jerk reaction caused by the passage of the parks bill,would be a discredit to the citizenry.When enacting laws that affect the entire population of a city,state,or nation, of course we must consider the safety and welfare of it's citizens. To only consider one person,namely yourself,and the raw emotions this topic stirs within you,is nothing less than a selfish abuse of your powers.You are elected officials and in as much be voted from your high throne of power!Most of these elections can be swayed with as little as 250 votes,not that many,so i suggest you regain your composure,remove your raw maternal or fraternal or paternal nature from the equation and revert to your elected position to govern with facts ,proven history and intelligence.

It seems the biggest point of argument is the safety of the children,having 3 children and 4 grandchildren myself,I would agree. We seem to have differing idea's concerning how to keep them safe from molesters,thieves,rapists,and murderers .

I'm working on the premise that your intelligent,rational,and able to keep your emotions in check,and that your merely ignorant of the facts.Making decisions without facts and proven history is careless ,negligent and intolerant to the concerns of the citizens who elected you in the first place. The following are historical facts not conjecture or mere opinion and I include the source of the information to give you the fair chance to rebuke the information.


Myth: 13 children are killed each day by guns
Fact: Adults included – This “statistic” includes “children” up to age 19 or 24, depending on the source. Most violent crime is committed by males ages 16-24, and this myth includes these young adults -- many of whom are gang members who die during criminal activity272. Incidentally, a ‘child’ is defined as a person between birth and puberty (typically 13-14 years old).
Fact: Criminals are included - 70% of these deaths are juveniles or adults, ages 17 to 20, during gang warfare. Half of the juveniles killed are involved in gang activity at the time of their deaths, which are very often drug trafficking related firefights
272 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1997

Fact: Over 13 teenagers die every day in automobiles, seven behind the wheel.276
276 U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, 2001
Fact: Four children die each day in the U.S. from parental neglect and abuse.277
277 National Center on Child Abuse Prevention, 1998 Annual Survey

Myth: If it saves the life of one child, it is worth it
Fact: Firearms in private hands are used an estimated 2.5 million times (or 6,849 times each day) each year to prevent crime;310 this includes rapes, aggravated assaults, and kidnapping. The number of innocent children protected by firearm owning parents far outweighs the number of children harmed.
Fact: Most Americans (firearm owners or not) believe that the way parents raise kids is what causes gun violence (or just violence in general). Among non-firearm owners, 38% said it was parental neglect that causes youth violence, while only 28% thought it was due to the availability of guns.311 They may be right as most homicides of children under age five are by their own parents. Of homicides among children ages 5 and younger: 31% were killed by their own mother and another 31% were killed by their own fathers.312
306
310 Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University, 1997
311 Gallup/Women.com poll, May 2000
312 FBI, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 1976-98

I believe most people totally against firearms know nothing about them,except for what they look like,and have the ability to take a life.Have you owned a firearm?Have you ever been target shooting? Have you ever handled and disassembled a firearm? If your answer to any of these questions is NO then I submit you don't have the education or background to make a sound judgment concerning this matter.Education destroys prejudice.

You demonstrate mistrust for the armed law-abiding citizen ,here is a fact concerning that very citizen done by the Florida department of justice.

Fact: Crime rates involving gun owners with carry permits have consistently been about 0.02% of all carry permit holders since Florida’s right-to-carry law started in 1988.151
151 Florida Department of Justice, 1998

This figure is two one hundredth's of one percent! That is microscopic. It does demonstrate that no one is infallible,not even an elected official.However it does prove that the law-abiding armed citizen is indeed trustworthy.Are you?

So you say the fewer guns the safer we are!Are we?Another fact for your observation.

Fact: “...most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.”116
Fact: 11% of police shootings kill an innocent person - about 2% of shootings by citizens kill an innocent person.117
117 Cramer C and Kopel D. "Shall issue: the new wave of concealed handgun permit laws." Golden CO: Independence Institute Issue Paper. October 17, 1994
116 Wright and Rossi, “”Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms”, 1986

I hear you! That's why we have policemen and women!On that note ,a little more for you,as follows:

Fact: There are not enough police to protect everyone. In 1999, there were about 150,000 police officers on duty at any one time.263
• This is on-duty police. This includes desk clerks, command sergeants, etc. – far fewer than 150,000 cops are cruising your neighborhood.
• There were approximately 271,933,702 people living in the United States. 264
• Thus there is only one on-duty cop for every 1,813 citizens!
263 US Justice Department, 1998

I would hope for your sake ,were you in the park and confronted by a gun toting rapist,thief,or common criminal that you were number 1,814,so you might be safe. If you are not familiar with average police response time you are far to uneducated to make a ruling on this matter! More food for thought.
• 74% of felons agreed that "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime."
• 57% of felons polled agreed, "criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."
75 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics Federal Firearms Offenders study, 1997. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, "The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons," Research Report, July 1985

Perhaps just an outright ban of guns is necessary,that should work,shouldn't it? or does it? Here's another fact.
Fact: Even banning guns does not slow down criminals. In the U.K., where private ownership of firearms is practically forbidden, criminals have and use guns regularly, and even build their own. One enterprising fellow converted 170 starter pistols to functioning firearms and sold them to gangs. Hundreds of such underground gun factories have been established, contributing to a 35% jump in gun violence.82
82 “Gun crime spreads 'like a cancer' across Britain”, The Guardian, Oct 5, 2003
Fact: Many of the countries with the strictest gun control have the highest rates of violent crime. Australia and England, which have virtually banned gun ownership, have the highest rates of robbery, sexual assault, and assault with force of the top 17 industrialized countries.334
334 Dutch Ministry of Justice, Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialized Countries, 2001.

I know you say you can't have citizens spraying bullets everywhere. Another fact:
Fact: When using guns in self-defense:
• 83% of robbery victims were not injured.
• 88% of assault victims were not hurt.
• 76% of all self-defense use of guns never involve firing a single shot.
114 National Crime Victimization Survey, 1979-1985

“Consider a fact hardly mentioned during the massive news coverage of the October 1997 shooting spree at a high school in Pearl, Miss.: An assistant principal retrieved a gun from his car and physically immobilized the gunman for a full 41/2 minutes while waiting for the police to arrive. The gunman had already fatally shot two students (after earlier stabbing his mother to death). Who knows how many lives the assistant principal saved by his prompt response?
I must say the police were fortunate enough to be close by this day.

I suggest to the entire council not to make haste in any decision making process much less when it is based in ignorance of the truth and only petty emotional reaction.Get your facts straight and adhere to the will of the people.This citizen chooses to have the ability to protect the life of his family and himself against the criminal element.Until the time you see reason should you pass ordinance's closing the parks to HCP holders I,as well as all i know will boycott these parks and protest the monies spent to upkeep these criminal opportunity zones! I did not include the facts concerning criminal activity where strict gun restrictions exist,suffice it to say, crime skyrocketed! You can look it up in between writing tyrant like laws.Educate yourself,your not as wise as you think you are!

*****So far i already heard back with a thank you on a well written letter, via phone call, very personal touch, hopefully it will at least open some eye's or make some wary.