Danny Reneau, Publisher
Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 3:54 pm

The hot topic in the country right now is gun control. This topic has never been far from the limelight since the days of David Koresh and the events that took place at his Branch Davidian Complex near Waco.

At the time attempted to take over the complex, Bill Clinton was president and federal authority was under the direction of Janet Reno. During a bloody gun battle and huge fire, about 55 adults and 28 children were found dead after the tragedy.

The residents in the complex were armed with military style assault weapons and started the call in earnest to limit the availability of assault weapons and large clips and magazines.

For a time, some limitations were placed on the weapons but those limitations have long since been removed or diminished.

The events at the Branch Davidian Complex were probably the low point of the Clinton administration. Whether people like Clinton or disliked him, the general feeling of the public was that the they did not feel the siege at the complex was handled properly. People revolted against the assault weapon ban and most of the congressional leaders who voted for it soon lost their jobs.

For the first time in over 40 years, the Congress changed from being controlled by the Democrats to being controlled by the Republicans. It has remained in Republican control for most of the time since then, except for a few brief periods of time.

Over the years, there have been several other outbursts of violence. Each time the outburst were by one or two people armed with assault weapons. While they were few in number, they were able to do extensive damage with the weapons.

I have never owned an assault weapon. I have a number of guns, but they are more geared towards hunting than shooting targets. My initial feeling was that I did not believe anyone needed to own an assault weapon. I certainly have no problem with people limiting the number of shells that could go in a clip.

However, my feelings are somewhat like those of one of my friends. He is an avid hunter and will tell you that he does not own an assault weapon. In fact, he says he does not want to own and does not care for automatic weapons except for shotguns, but at the same time he says he does not like the idea that the government can tell you that you can't own an assault type weapon.

He does care to own one but doesn't want the government to say he can't own one. My feelings are pretty close to his.

I am willing to sacrifice my rights to some degree. The assault weapons ban would not be the worst thing to me. I still would vote against it if they put it on the ballot.

I do feel that the whole source of the problem is not being placed in the limelight.

The people who commit these violent acts are mentally ill. You can see that they have problems when you just look at them. The face who shot Gabby Gifford, the man who shot up the theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the man who shot up the children at the school in Connecticut all had an appearance of being somewhat subdued and they appeared to have a mental issue.

It would be interesting to know how much these people were involved in the use of violent video games where people are killed and yet no one dies. Also, I would like to know if these people were given Ritilan or mind altering drugs while they were in school.

I have a good friend who adopted six children all of whom came from tough circumstances. Several of them were abused or living in a car before he took them in.

Raising them has been a challenge but he placed a thought before me several years ago. These troubled young people are placed on drugs to calm them down while they are in school. Sometimes they would be disruptive in school without the drugs.

They are given the drugs by the government until they become adults and then for the first time in their lives they are placed on the streets to face the world without the support of the drugs that they have grown accustomed to for many years.

It would be interesting to know what role video games and mind altering drugs played in the lives of these people.