Taking a stand

Opinion

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March 17, 2013

Taking a stand

Anonymous The Herald-Banner Sun Mar 17, 2013, 05:26 AM CDT

We printed an editorial on Feb. 24 titled “Looking at the gun debate from a new perspective.” The purpose of the article was to examine the perceived increase in gun violence in the United States over the past decade and propose some solutions for reducing it.

We explicitly decided to avoid any discussion regarding the Constitutionality of gun ownership and the various proposed legislation designed to increase or decrease access to different kinds of firearms because we felt that key aspects of the gun control discussion were being ignored by the press.

We have received both praise and criticism for the article, which we have printed in our Letters to the Editor section as part of our continuing commitment to provide our readers with an open forum to discuss topics that impact us here in Hunt County.

We want to make it clear that we firmly support the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment. As a newspaper that operates on the ideal of “freedom of the press” outlined in the Bill of Rights, we understand how important these rights are and how desperately we must protect them.

We consider it our job to hold local, state and federal government officials accountable for their actions. We will fight any attempts by government officials to abridge our and our fellow citizens’ Constitutional rights.

Every government will always attempt to increase its power. We have the unique opportunity as citizens of the United States and Texas to keep our governments from doing so. We cannot allow ourselves to be apathetic regarding our Constitutional rights.

Our editorial in February focused on some steps that we could take to cut down on gun violence. The solution we proposed included more education on proper gun use, more emphasis on gun safety and stronger background checks to reduce the amount of firearms that fall into the hands of criminals. These are steps that could be taken while protecting our rights.

We would like to reiterate the conclusion to our earlier editorial.

“The focus on the national debate about what kinds of guns should be legal and the size of ammunition clips seems to be ignoring this fact: Ending gun violence doesn’t begin with placing restrictions on guns. It starts with taking personal responsibility for our actions and being sympathetic to those around us that so clearly need our help.”

Our editorial can be read at www.heraldbanner.com/opinion.

To contact the Herald-Banner editorial staff, send an email to editor@heraldbanner.com.

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