Let people carry guns; punish lawbreakers

If Mr. Fanella does not want to carry a firearm for his defense, that is fine. But please don’t advocate a criminal law that prevents others from doing so. I do not believe that one’s right to life and the ability to protect it must be shed at your property line.

Concluding that guns in good hands is still bad because of their potential for harm is a very flawed thought process and dangerous to our personal liberty. In our republic we do not ban cars because of drunk drivers or fire because it may burn. Our republic punishes the drunk and incarcerates the arsonist, or at least that is the way it should be.

Bad people have guns in public already and current laws continue to keep the good people defenseless because the slim possibility that a few good people might some day turn bad; therefore, all but the criminal must go defenseless to keep a good social order.

I remember a Colorado woman with a concealed handgun license who saved a local church from a mass shooting. I wish a few good people would have been carrying a firearm in the Aurora theater last week, but unfortunately that theater was a Gun Free Zone.

Illinois is the only state left with a complete prohibition on carrying defensive firearms in public places. Our neighboring states — Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin — all have right to carry laws. Most Illinois politicians believe the only life worth protecting is their own.

Jack V. Forbes Jr.

Elgin