Bread and Roses strike - UAW Local 5960

Page THE UAW LOCAL 5960 REPORT August 1, 2012
local 5960
editor’s report
LET’S BEGIN TO GET BETTER
The recent events in Colorado lead
us to have a discussion about firearms,
ammunition and
the prevalence of
violence in our
society. Let me
say right up front
that having my
best friend murdered
by a hand
gun when we were
both in our early
Tony Hufford
twenties has soured my views on guns
in general and hand guns in particular.
Let’s just look at the facts: The gunman,
whose name will go unused in
the article, carried a hand gun, a shot
gun and a semi-automatic assault rifle
(AK-47). He also was in possession of
thousands of rounds of ammunition
bought through the internet with seemingly
no limit. His AK-47 assault rifle
had a multi-round clip that could fire
between 50 and 60 rounds per minute
or about 1 every second.
Call me crazy, but in all my years of
hunting I can’t remember once seeing
a hunter out in the field with an AK-47
and multi-round clip preparing for a
hunt. The only thing this type of weaponry
is good for is
to kill people; in
this case, innocent
men, women and
children who had
gone to a movie to
have a good time.
Assault weapons, like the one used
in this homicide, were banned in 1994
under the Clinton Administration, but
the ban was allowed to expire under
George Bush ten years later. The law
expired for one reason; the armament
manufacturers, backed by the National
Rifle Association (NRA) and the politicians
they had bought, wanted it to.
These assault weapons bring big money
to the manufacturers, the NRA who
supports them, and the elected officials
who benefit by way of campaign contributions
and other perks provided by
these purveyors of death.
Why is it that we can ban the use of
the pesticide DDT or any other human-made
substance that can cause
the American population harm, but we
are unable to control these weapons of
death that are manufactured for only
one reason; to hurt or kill people? Are
It’s Been Said…
“The summer night is like
a perfection of thought.”
– Wallace Stevens
you aware that more people in the U.S.
have been killed by domestic gun fire
in the last 100 years than were killed
in all our wars combined?
Some will say we
need more guns.
I have heard this
among our own
membership. More
guns make us all
safer. Well, if that is true when will it
start to happen? I have seen no proof
of this NRA backed theory.
Ask yourself, if you had been in
that dark theatre when the gunman
entered, would you be ready to back
down a madman or become just as
dangerous to those around you as he
was when your emotions kicked in and
your lack of practice with your own
firearm became evident?
The facts are that every day in the
U.S. 25 people are killed by gun fire,
not including accidents or suicides.
Does it sound like we are getting safer
with all these guns?
There really is no simple answer,
but we have to start somewhere to
begin to deal with this issue. How can
we stand by when so many Americans
are slaughtered each year? Over 100
thousand children have been killed by
gunfire in the U.S. since the late ’70s,
when they started to collect such data.
This is shameful.
Re-banning assault weapons and
multi-round clips should be a no brainer.
Limits on ammunition are another piece
of this puzzle. Those two ideas, put into
place, would have saved some lives in
the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre.
What do our leaders talk about...banning
wearing costumes to the movies.
Give me a break. Are our congressional
leaders really that afraid or dependent
on the National Rifle Association?
Obviously, the shooter was a disturbed
individual who was hell bent on
harming the good people of Aurora,
Colorado. There will always be deranged
individuals among us and while
we can’t change that fact, other than to
lock them up after the fact, we can limit
their damage by controlling the equipment
that they have access to. The local
police department doesn’t even have
AK-47s, why should the public?
Let’s start today to make this better.
Re-ban assault weapons, multi-round
clips and limit the amount of ammunition
individuals can purchase.
Thanks for listening.
If you have an alternative idea,
please send it to editor@uaw5960.org.
We value the views of the membership.
UAW Local 5960 reserves the
right to edit all articles for length and
grammar.
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