To the editor:

The cold blooded attack on the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in South Carolina on Wednesday, June 17, leaving nine black American parishioners dead, leaves a peace loving nation stunned as it searches for answers.

Such a sub-human act can only constitute the antithesis of values good and loving people hold dear. A day of prayer for the victims and their families as they mourn the loss of loved ones would be the responsible and compassionate thing to do.

What we're seeing instead is the media and opportunists use this tragedy to engage in election year theatrics to advance their anti-gun agenda's. In fact spewing anti-gun propaganda through campaigns of misinformation and outright lies directed against law abiding citizens and the firearms they own.

The typical knee jerk reaction in situations such as the one we're faced with now, the Newtown school shootings and so on is "Don't just sit there, do something."

Sometimes it is wiser to just sit there.

Presenting cold hard facts in response to misguided emotions and mass hysteria when framing a Pro "(Second Amendment)" argument is what law abiding citizens need to do to effectively defend The Constitutional and their "(Second Amendment)" right's.

Dylann Roof was a drug user caught with the powerful mind-altering narcotic Suboxone when apprehended by police during an incident on Feb. 28. He received a 45 caliber handgun from his father on April 3rd for his 21st birthday. Cause and effect ? Clearly, the gun was not the cause.

In Western movies, everyone has a gun. They go into bars, they start drinking, they develop attitudes, and before to long, they're killing one another. It's great for the movies, but in real life, nothing could be further from the truth.

Nineteenth century Dodge City was more peaceful than most American cities are today. Robert Heinlein explains why: "An armed society is a polite society," he wrote. The most heavily-armed states in America have very low violent crime rates as opposed to New York and New Jersey which have some of the most stringent forms of gun control legislation on the books that blatantly infringe on ones right to self-defend.

When law abiding citizens are armed, less gun violence occurs.

Research by John Lott shows that allowing citizens the right to carry concealed handguns reduces violent crime. States that passed right-to-carry concealed handgun laws were able to enjoy a whopping 17-percent drop in their murder rates over a 10 year period. 1.7-percent per year.

In states that enacted right-to-carry laws between 1977 and 1999, the occurrence of multiple-victim shootings dropped by an amassing 67-percent. Since 1997, two out of eight school shootings were stopped by citizens with guns (before police arrived at the scene).

Lawmakers in all 50 states need to acknowledge that cops can't be everywhere. Normal response time is 10 to 15 minutes which is unacceptable when it's a question of life or death. Getting tough on gun ownership will not make a society safer. Arming it will.

Louis Carl Reiner

Flemington