Correspondent of the week
HELEN ETTERS, Winston-Salem
Armed America
Protests over police brutality? Mass killings? This is America.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that guns kill 30,000Americans per year. Less than 3 percent of these are self-defense.
This is America. This does not happen in Canada or Australia or Spain or any other industrialized nation. This is America! In other countries, police approach a car or a suspect and don’t have to wonder whether this person is carrying a gun. They assume the citizen is not, and that is almost always correct. In America, police approach a car or a suspect and they assume the person they are stopping, for perhaps a broken turn signal, is likely carrying a gun.
They have to fear for their lives every time they stop someone for speeding, and when they expect that the citizen probably has a gun, they are more likely to use their own. When our own NC state legislators prevent the public from seeing the police-cam recordings, they only make matters worse.
As Ronald Reagan said in May, 1967, “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”
If we don’t like this armed America, if we want to protect our police officers, if we want a safe country, then we have to get rid of the guns. Get rid of the guns.
Helen of Marlowe's Blog 
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