Dear Editor:Granted, what we have witnessed in the last few years and especially this latest event is unbelievable, tragic and horrible. My heart is so broken over this but what is great about his country in one aspect is that we can respectfully disagree with each other's opinions...oh boy and I disagree with Mr. Colin Clarke. He is going to tell me that the 2nd Amendment was written just for wealthy slave owners? Please. The numbers he provided of murdered children in the U.S. is up there with the Mexican drug cartels, which proves that if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have them. If we outlaw guns, it's not going to stop a deranged soul from killing. That's like a horse wearing blinders...thinking you can't see it, it isn't really there. Mr. Clarke's comment on private citizens not being well regulated...well, that just happens to be one of our greatest resources as Americans, taxes aside of course. I thought the most important part of being American was to be free. A regulated society is not all that free. If you think that just by feeling sorry for these poor, innocent children makes it OK to outlaw or regulate guns, no way, no how. Mr. Clarke's statistics don't impress me one iota. I can spreadsheet with 250 columns to say anything I want and, in this case, I want to express more than anything that what we need to do is become more responsible people, parents, grandparents, neighbors and a community-involved society. Taking my gun out of my hands no more increases my chance of being killed but if you try, your chances go way up. What I'm trying to say here is that the more unable you are to protect yourself, the more in danger you are of being dominated in any sense, which is in the spirit of the 2nd Amendment. Ernesto Flores Downey

********** Published: December 27, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 37