Robert Hacker – 4/15/09

This page was last updated on April 18, 2009.

Politicians and NRA had role in deaths; Robert Hacker; Beaver County Times; April 15, 2009.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“As I sit, watch and listen to the ceremony honoring the murdered police officers in Pittsburgh, my deepest and most sincere sympathies go out to the family and friends for their ultimate loss and sacrifices.

“Every TV announcer and amateur psychologist is trying to determine what would make someone do such a thing.

“However, in my thinking, they are missing two groups that are as responsible as any for these kinds of murders, and they are the National Rifle Association and the politicians who are bought and paid for by the NRA for permitting these murderers to be able to purchase assault weapons.”

[RWC] Mr. Hacker, if you review the details, you’ll find that everything Mr. Poplawski did could have been accomplished with a simple handgun and a hunting rifle. Further, what makes you think a nut like Mr. Poplawski would let a law get in between him and a weapon he wanted?

“I can see no reason why any law-abiding citizen would need an assault weapon for protection or for hunting. I have no problem with owning a gun or guns for those purposes.”

[RWC] Mr. Hacker appears to believe the reason for the Second Amendment was “for protection or for hunting.” The reason for the Second Amendment is for the citizens to protect themselves from the government. Read the Constitution and most of our founding documents and you find our Founding Fathers were very distrustful of what government could become. That’s why the powers granted to the federal government are explicitly enumerated and all other powers are “reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people” (10^th Amendment). Our Founding Fathers also knew the American Revolution would have been impossible had the British prohibited civilian gun ownership.

“I feel there has to be some type of compromise that could satisfy both sides without needing to be at either extreme of ‘no guns’ or ‘any and all guns.’”

[RWC] “[A]ny and all guns” aren’t legal. For example, the civilian purchase of new fully automatic weapons has been illegal since 1986. Fully automatic weapons registered by civilians before 1986 are legal, however, and can be transferred to other civilians. Further, it’s illegal to convert a semi-automatic weapon to automatic.

“I also know that many police officers belong to and support the NRA, and their support goes to buy the political might that has killed so many of their brothers.

“This is beyond my sense of reason.

“Go figure.”