To five black robed troglodytes who inhabit what is supposed to be the highest court of the land. In reality it is a darkened passageway in a law library where narrow minded men and women peer with their tunnel vision into a fantasy wonderland named Might-have-been.
Dear Justice Alioto: I suppose that you have never been awakened in the night by rapid and staccato gunfire as you slept in your comfy cozy home. I am sure that the suburban landscape which you inhabit keeps a pretty tight lid on folks settling arguments with gunfire. A good night’s sleep is a precious thing in some cities and urban neighborhoods. But that doesn’t concern you, does it? You probably have the luxury of a 24 hr security guard, or at the very least a monitored system that keeps things nice and quiet for you and yours. It must be nice.
Dear Justice Thomas: I suppose that you have never walked by a small business and seen a police officer go in with his gun drawn expecting to confront a petty thief with a weapon. These guys in uniform, that patrol our streets, I really don’t know how they do it. I mean, think about going to YOUR place of work and expecting that some fool will try and compromise your safety simply as a way to get some ready cash for what is probably a bad habit. But you can’t can you? It’s nice and safe where you live and work isn’t it? Otherwise how could you come to such a harebrained conclusion about guns and how our society should deal with them.
Dear Justice Scalia: I suppose that you do not read the newspaper and the stories contained therein of small children, imitating their parents, fooling around with a handgun, and killing a brother or sister, quite by accident, of course. That might make you wince perhaps and consider ways to keep such deadly items out of the hands of children and their careless parents. Have you considered the consequences of your actions, because the children cannot. They have not had the benefit of the education you have. They just have guns to play with not laws.
Dear Justice Roberts: I suppose you have ignored the stories in that same newspaper of cars careering down some street, in the poorer section of town, exchanging gunfire with another car. Well, you must say to yourself, they are adults and they know why they are doing something, as foolish as it might sound. But do they? As you collect your paycheck each week or month, so they are “collecting” or should we say enforcing theirs ... that”s all, just trying to survive in whatever weird, contorted and enraged way our society has driven them to.
Dear Justice Kennedy: I suppose you have never driven down a street and seen a gun just lying there in the roadway, discarded quite easily, since they are so readily available. Well, sir I have! It now sits in a drawer in my office, with no ammunition or even empty clip which is stored elsewhere. I consider myself a responsible adult. I would not dare allow a loaded gun anywhere on my premises. But that’s me. You however seem to think its OK for folks to own, operate and fool with loaded guns. Why is that? Are your emotions always under perfect control? For a lot of folks that sort of control is ephemeral due to social pressures, ignorance caused by a derelict educational system and financial hardships.
I also do not suppose that any of you have ever looked out of your third story apartment as I have and peered down at an unidentifiable man seemingly pointing at a car containing two women. But then the end of his hand turns into a gun and the two women, one of them pregnant, are dead and their car is rolling slowly down the street until it stops after bumping into another car. The man has fled and I don’t know why any of this happened, except that someone had a gun and used it.
To all five Supreme Court Justices who voted against the Chicago law restricting their purchase ands possession: The reason I ask these questions, and make these suppositions is that if you had, if you had one modicum of real experience in the life and death struggle that is our nation, you might have thought differently in the recent decision about gun laws.
I am not advocating the banning of guns but I am begging for a reasonable and real restrictions on the ease with which guns (especially handguns) are obtained; the frequency with which they are utilized and the pain that they cause all of us, excluding you of course!
Dear Justice Alioto: I suppose that you have never been awakened in the night by rapid and staccato gunfire as you slept in your comfy cozy home. I am sure that the suburban landscape which you inhabit keeps a pretty tight lid on folks settling arguments with gunfire. A good night’s sleep is a precious thing in some cities and urban neighborhoods. But that doesn’t concern you, does it? You probably have the luxury of a 24 hr security guard, or at the very least a monitored system that keeps things nice and quiet for you and yours. It must be nice.
Dear Justice Thomas: I suppose that you have never walked by a small business and seen a police officer go in with his gun drawn expecting to confront a petty thief with a weapon. These guys in uniform, that patrol our streets, I really don’t know how they do it. I mean, think about going to YOUR place of work and expecting that some fool will try and compromise your safety simply as a way to get some ready cash for what is probably a bad habit. But you can’t can you? It’s nice and safe where you live and work isn’t it? Otherwise how could you come to such a harebrained conclusion about guns and how our society should deal with them.
Dear Justice Scalia: I suppose that you do not read the newspaper and the stories contained therein of small children, imitating their parents, fooling around with a handgun, and killing a brother or sister, quite by accident, of course. That might make you wince perhaps and consider ways to keep such deadly items out of the hands of children and their careless parents. Have you considered the consequences of your actions, because the children cannot. They have not had the benefit of the education you have. They just have guns to play with not laws.
Dear Justice Roberts: I suppose you have ignored the stories in that same newspaper of cars careering down some street, in the poorer section of town, exchanging gunfire with another car. Well, you must say to yourself, they are adults and they know why they are doing something, as foolish as it might sound. But do they? As you collect your paycheck each week or month, so they are “collecting” or should we say enforcing theirs ... that”s all, just trying to survive in whatever weird, contorted and enraged way our society has driven them to.
Dear Justice Kennedy: I suppose you have never driven down a street and seen a gun just lying there in the roadway, discarded quite easily, since they are so readily available. Well, sir I have! It now sits in a drawer in my office, with no ammunition or even empty clip which is stored elsewhere. I consider myself a responsible adult. I would not dare allow a loaded gun anywhere on my premises. But that’s me. You however seem to think its OK for folks to own, operate and fool with loaded guns. Why is that? Are your emotions always under perfect control? For a lot of folks that sort of control is ephemeral due to social pressures, ignorance caused by a derelict educational system and financial hardships.
I also do not suppose that any of you have ever looked out of your third story apartment as I have and peered down at an unidentifiable man seemingly pointing at a car containing two women. But then the end of his hand turns into a gun and the two women, one of them pregnant, are dead and their car is rolling slowly down the street until it stops after bumping into another car. The man has fled and I don’t know why any of this happened, except that someone had a gun and used it.
To all five Supreme Court Justices who voted against the Chicago law restricting their purchase ands possession: The reason I ask these questions, and make these suppositions is that if you had, if you had one modicum of real experience in the life and death struggle that is our nation, you might have thought differently in the recent decision about gun laws.
I am not advocating the banning of guns but I am begging for a reasonable and real restrictions on the ease with which guns (especially handguns) are obtained; the frequency with which they are utilized and the pain that they cause all of us, excluding you of course!
