Guns and hate are on rise in America [View All]

[babylonsister]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/1625036,CST-EDT-jesse17.article

Guns and hate are on rise in America

June 17, 2009

BY JESSE JACKSON

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Adding guns to the festering hate in America is like pouring gasoline on fire. Now, our police are outgunned on our own streets. Gun show loopholes allow would-be terrorists or haters easy access to guns. Concealed weapons will take an ever-greater toll as they turn bar arguments into lethal encounters. There are at least 200 million guns in America.

This isn't about hunting deer or quail. This is about arming the haters, giving them the right to conceal weapons or arm themselves with assault weapons that are made for only one thing: killing lots of people.

Hate is on the rise. Guns are on the rise. Hate and guns are a deadly combination. Most Americans are neither haters nor gun nuts. Most support commonsense laws to limit easy access to guns. Few want to arm themselves with a concealed weapon to enter a restaurant or a national park. It is hard to find anyone who thinks it a good idea for our police to be outgunned on our streets, or for would-be terrorists to have easy access to assault weapons.

Guns will not provide economic security. Hunters do not need assault weapons to kill deer. Honest gun owners have a huge stake in policing the sale of guns so the nuts and haters have a hard time getting them.

But instead of strengthening our laws after 9/11, we have been weakening them. The majority is getting rolled by a mobilized minority. Only leadership can turn that around.