With the arrival this past week of the deadline for registering military style weapons in New York, our gun-carrying comrades appear to be more tightly bound to the code of the gun than to the laws that bind the rest of us in a civilized society.
How startling to find that the cult of the firearm should monopolize the passions of this group over their responsibility to uphold and follow the law, the same as all others in society do — their wives and children, neighbors and friends and community leaders.
How discouraging to hear various police chiefs and sheriffs declare they will not enforce the law to arrest those who fail to register their firearms. And how odd it is, as Christian churches prepare for Easter week celebrations with messages of mercy and forgiveness, that the gun lobbies grow more rowdy, preaching defiance and aggression instead.
How sad to read that police officers, city councilmen and county and state legislators are willing to stand opposed to the law, contrary to the oaths they swore when they took office. New York's SAFE Act was designed as the strongest measure in the country to keep illegal guns off the street, make us all feel safer, and keep guns out of the hands of violence-prone individuals. How wrong for the head of the N.Y. Pistol and Rifle Association to turn this into a political campaign when members of both parties in the state Legislature voted for passage of the SAFE Act in January 2013.
How unforgiveable that all those opposed seem to have forgotten the impetus for the act — the slaughter of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., by a man who had lost his senses. Those shootings should be seared in our memory. They were committed by a man with a Bushmaster assault rifle, the type outlawed now and glorified as a prize possession of many in the pro-gun crowd.
Don't these people read? There has been shooting after shooting by individuals who might have been prevented from their acts if a tough anti-gun law was in place. I believe the SAFE Act was constructed as the most comprehensive way to get at these problems. It addresses the seriously mentally ill, domestic violence and suicides as major issues to resolve.
The message this week should be forgiveness and support for one another to make these laws work. Not the call of the gun lobbies to incite us to disobey the law.