A few days ago, President Obama made a 23 point proposal based on a task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden in answer to the violence in our country. He came up with these steps in order to keep our children safe, "our first task as a society," he said. "We don't benefit from ignorance," Obama said.
These measures won't stop every senseless act of violence. Nothing that we do, as a country, will stop every shooting or killing.
There are too many people in this country who, for one reason or another, think that violence is the answer.
Among other things, he advocates a universal background check for anyone trying to buy a gun. As many as 40 percent of all gun sales are conducted without a background check. He also wants to restore a ban on military style assault weapons and enact a 10-round limit on magazines.
The Second Amendemnt states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I don't believe that this amendment gives people the right to have a military style assault weapon that is made to kill people. I don't believe it gives anyone the right to have as many rounds in a magazine as they want to, that will allow them to shoot as many as 30 shots in a matter of seconds.
I believe in rights. All of our rights as Americans, including the right to "bear Arms." But I also believe in common sense, our responsibilities as people living in a society with other people, and not infringing on other peoples' rights.
The right to freedom of religion was taken from the Sikhs in Wisconsin last August. The right to freedom of peaceable assembly was taken from the people in the theater in Aurora, Colo. It was also taken away from the kids in Newtown, Conn., the kids at Virginia Tech in 2007, the shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center mall in Portland, Ore., and the campers in Utoya, Norway in July 2011. What about their rights?
Obama said he believed that gun owners - responsible gun owners - will want the same thing; that with those rights comes responsibilities.
Obama is trying to do his part, as president and as a citizen of this country, to make it safer for a parent to take his or her child to school every day. The country is clamoring for answers and this is his answer.
Jeanne Archambeault
Mancos Times editor