If anyone has the original ARF url or the paper which this twat writes for please let me know.

I did write her a letter.




Hello,

I got a lot of response from my assault weapon opinion/edtiorial article
that ran in our paper earlier this month.

I realize that some of you may not be from Texas (I noticed that a few
emails were from other states with the sign-off signatures at the bottom.)

I have been born and raised in Texas, Dallas to be exact. I did NOT mean for
my article to indicate THAT ALL GUNOWNERS are bad and evil. I know it
depends who is holding the weapon.

But after the Tyler incident, I began having flashbacks to the night my
friend died.

It was 11 years ago. We had just graduated high school two weeks before, a
group of us were going to a party for high school 2004 graduates near
downtown Dallas. We were just going to have fun. We were teenagers. We
didn't bother nobody. We pulled into the parking lot and started to walk to
the party. Well there were some other teenagers in the parking lot, stealing
a car. As we walked to the party my friend happened to look over and saw
them. He could recognize one of the guys from our neighborhood. The kid
pulled out a weapon and began firing. It hit two of my friends. It hit one
in his main artery in his leg ­ he lived. My other friend was not so lucky.
He took a bullet in the back and a bullet in his side through his ribs. He
died protecting me. I was right next to him. It could have been me. I held
him as the ambulance was the way. He died on the operating hospital at
Parkland Hospital (the same hospital President John F. Kennedy was taken
to). Three weeks after graduation we buried him. We were just going to have
fun. FUN,,,,FUN,,, we were teenagers. He was scheduled to leave later that
summer for a full football scholarship to a 4-year university in Louisiana.
I vowed that day I would never ever go near a gun. (and yes I have undergone
years of counseling and prayer to move forward. It doesn't make the pain any
less painful though)

I realize that everyone with guns is not a bad person and some people do
feel safer with them. The point I was trying to make is I don't. I sometimes
wonder and ask myself what if guns had never been invented. Would my friend
still be alive. Sure the other guy could have ran and had a fist fight with
the guys or even try to cut them with a knife. We might have been able to
run into the club by the time the guys got near us if that had been the
case. My friends and I couldn't out run a bullet no matter how fast we ran.

When I want to talk to my friend. I have to go to a grave. A grave. I can't
call him up and say hi. I can't say let's go get desert or watch a movie.

I am not nieve enough to know that guns will never go away. It's like saying
rapists will go away. It doesn't mean that I have to like it.

The problem is guns wind up in the hands of the wrong people. If we didn't
have guns they couldn't wind up in their hands though.

My father has friends who own guns and other weapons. When his friends start
pulling them out to look at, load, prepare their bullets and other things I
leave the room. A friend of a friend in college was raised around guns his
whole life. He pulled out a pistol one day and played with it like it was a
children's toy plastic gun. I couldn't get out of the room fast enough. He
almost blew off part of his foot. He was twirling it around and stuff.

While I realize some of you may be like, well tough...your friend died. They
meant a lot to me. I don't expect everyone to understand. You can't
understand unless you have been there. Unless you've experienced the same
thing.

I would also like to note that this was not an article that ran on our front
page. It was an editorial/opinion/column. Which means just that. It was my
opinion. I understand you may not agree with my opinion. THAT'S OK. Can you
imagine what life would be like if everyone never disagreed or had
differences in opinion. When differences in opinion are expressed in a
logically and rational manner new things can be established. It's called
compromise. It's called seeing the other person's point of view.

I thank you for your responses. Granted, all of them were opposing mine, but
I didn't expect everyone to have the same opinion as mine. But please keep
in mind, it's my opinion.

Everyone in America is granted the right to voice their opinions. Whether
others may think they are wrong or not. My dad, uncles and countless of his
friends fought for that right in the Vietnam War. I got lucky my dad came
back.

For the record....I am considered by my collegues, friends, and family a
(and consider myself to be a) very open-minded person.

I would like to say something to a couple of you...you know who you
are...while I respect your right to voice your opinion, you do not have to
belittle me with disrespecting, vulgar comments. The rest I thank you for
your opinions and the tasteful way they were presented.

Sherry Long

I wrote her a line by line of her article with the corrections.   I also included a intro paragraph and a summary.

boo hooo my friend died now Im afraid of an object... me i have a fear of criminals. everytime i get a sad sob story from someone about someone they know dieing from a gun i like to note the millions of jews that died because of gun control... even still i do feel sorry for her and her friends

Lots of things fall into the wrong hands.  

Women fall into the hands of rapists.
Young boys fall into the hands of pedophiles
Cars fall into the hands of drunks.
Food falls into the hands of fat people.
Some airplanes fell into the hands of terrorists.
A little knowledge falls into the hands of the over-confident.

Some people just can't put something out of their mind.  I'm Ok with her saying it would be nice if there were no guns and then realizing it ain't gonna happen.  She's suffering and trying to come to grips with the fact that in the real world it cannot be explained, fixed and prevented.

Key words here: wrong HANDS

If there were no guns there would still be "wrong hands". It's the people, stupid! Until people start to value human life there will always be creeps who kill others, be it by gun, knife, baseball bat or bare hands.

I really can't believe this woman writes for a paper. That's about the worst written crap I've ever read. It appears she has never taken any type of journalism or writing class at all.

I got the same reply but couldn't stand reading it word for word.  It sounded so smarmy and pathetic, as if she wanted us to feel pity for her.  

She should be writing high school essays.

kool

She goes from singular friend who died to plural back to singular...... This is such a BullShit piece.

I hope they printed that so that everyone can see how baseless her opinion on the subject is - as if regulating MY gun ownership will somehow affect the kid who is out stealing cars and shooting people.

Quoted: Why does she feel her opinion overrides other peoples RIGHTS? I have had friends killed in car accidents.  I don't have irrational fear of inanimate objects from it.

Logic is obviously lost on her.

I think it's funny, because she actually defeats her own argument with that letter. She says she doesn't want guns in the wrong hands and wishes they were never invented. Well, guess what? They were invented! Just because you wish that they weren't ever invented isn't going to make them go away! You can't click your little heels together and make them all dissapear. Some people just don't get it! The fact is that bad guys are going to have guns no matter what! So, it would be assinine in light of that to take away the law abiding citizens guns and make them even MORE helpless.

Not to mention the fact that she did have some very blatant errors in her article, like saying that the AWB banned all automatics and semi-automatics, implying that semi-automatics were automatics, among many others. If she wants to be anti-gun that's one thing, but to to then spout false information to support your argument is a completely different thing. Of course, the only way an anti-gun argument even holds water is to use false information, so I guess that's a moot point.

She hates guns for purely irrational and emotional reasons related to an early tragedy in her life. It's similar to people who want the death penalty for someone who jumps in his car after having a beer an hour ago, because someone they loved was killed by a drunk driver. Arguing with either using reason alone isn't going to be effective.

http://www.hendersondailynews.com/articles/2005/03/11/opinion/02opiniontue.txt

For an editor, her spelling and grammar are horrible.

The problem with our differing opinions is that the antis want to force theirs on us by taking away our weapons, we do not wish to force ours on them by requiring them to acquire weapons.

Blahblahpersonaltragedytrumpsfactsandreasonyakyakwaaahwaaah. Is that what that says? I didn't read the whole thing.

don't steal cars and you'll live longer