This was published in our local rag, “The Daily World” (http://www.thedailyworld.com/display/inn_opinion/opinion193-a.txt)

We could make bullets a controlled substance – June 21, 2000

A terrible poison has invaded our country. It can kill within minutes or its victims can linger for weeks. It is found in homes, in cars and
sometimes in schools. Its method of transmission can kill and maim from a few inches away to many yards. It is a bullet.

I couldn’t be part of the Million Mom March, but I can write this letter. Maybe it is too late to take guns away from children and fools, but
we could make bullets a controlled substance.

I come from a hunting family. I enjoy shooting guns at a target range and I’m a pretty good shot. I have nothing against responsible gun
owners who realize there is no such thing as an unloaded gun. We don’t let just anybody own land mines and nerve gas, yet we sell guns to
any fool who wants one. Lethal weapons should only be given to those who can prove they are responsible enough to own them.

For those who wrap themselves in the flag and cry for their “right to bear arms,” I say if you could show the authors of our Constitution a
video of Columbine or show them the names of Americans maimed and killed every year by guns, they would spit in your eye if you
proposed that this is what they had in mind for this nation.

You say you need a gun to protect your family? Surely you know, that gun is many, many times more likely to kill someone in your family
by accidents, suicide or murder.

You say we need guns to protect our nation? In this day and age how likely is it that we will call on a civilian military? No foreign army has
come close to inflicting the casualties that we have inflicted on ourselves.

Yes, there will be problems to work out. No change comes at no cost or at no risk. But we have to stop being selfish and paranoid. The
Right should have their tougher laws against criminals and the Left should have their tougher gun-control laws. Stop the petty territorial
fighting. We need to attack this problem from every angle possible. America is sickened by the blood that spills every day on our soil.

How many more killings will have to happen until we say “enough is enough?” One hundred? A hundred-thousand? How close does the
bullet have to come to you or a family member until we join forces to stop this insane bloodshed?

Lee Cox

Aberdeen

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