Letter to the Editor: Are the right people being punished?

Why is it always that the people who obey the law get punished every time we have a few bad apples?

Let’s start with vehicle license, insurance and registrations. The law says you have to have these, but yet, there are plenty who don’t, and the state has let the insurance companies punish the ones who do by letting them charge us for the uninsured. It’s called “no fault.”

Instead of putting a heavy fine on these people, they’re just given a tap on the hand and told to get insurance, but some of them don’t. It is cheaper, if caught, just to pay a fine, and even if they get points, it doesn’t seem to matter.

This is one example, and now, we come to the next: gun laws.

When there is a shooting, who gets the blame? Who gets more regulations? Even when the guns are purchased correctly by the people involved — which some shouldn’t have gotten because their mental background is not on there yet — why? Background checks should cover more than a federal one and should include local. If it’s a first-time gun buyer, then college and school records should be looked at, also.

Stop punishing those who do own guns and use them correctly. Soon, what will happen is the ones who have been doing it safely will start buying on the black market and the hell with going with background checks or applying for a permit to purchase one.

And one more thing to think about: Those who do the shootings often go where they feel there are no other guns. When I am home, a gun is going to be handy, because if someone breaks in, they’re not going to let me go to get it.

Where are our rights? As I see it, this government, state and federal, only protects the ones breaking the laws. Isn’t it time for a change and to start punishing them?

Marvin Fortney

Hartly