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Loading...After reading Rachel Marsden’s column (“NRA ‘solutions’ straight out of Stallone movie”) in the Jan. 1 opinion section, I find myself with my fingers on the keyboard exercising my freedom of expression. I believe her scope of this issue is based on another unrealistic Hollywood portrayal, that being “Pollyanna.” In other words, sometimes a smile isn’t enough, nor is burying your head in the sand. Marsden seems to fail throughout to grasp the idea that you do not always get the time to over-evaluate a life-threatening situation. She also implicates any individual using lethal force for the sake of self-defense as “a legitimate sociopath.” In regards to the aforementioned, I will pose to her and to all this question: Would a pepper gel sprayer have made a difference in Newtown, Conn.? Would 13 feet of defensible ground have been adequate against an assailant bent on the destruction of innocent lives, their guardians and himself armed with weaponry with an effective range of much greater than 13 feet? And would we regard any school teacher with the bravery and tenacity to defend her or his students with lethal force as a sociopath? Marsden’s opinion appears to be that unless you have the skills, training, expertise, physical and mental rigor, discipline and psychological training to perform the sort heroism of, say, a sniper, that you are not capable of exercising the judgment required of you to likewise exercise your personal right and the personal rights of all people to defend themselves. Long live the Second Amendment.
Allan O’Connell
Tooele
