Change must include ban on handguns

How's this for a "change"?

A Democratic candidate for president runs on a platform with a plank calling for a complete ban on the sale and possession of easily concealed handguns.

In the year 2000, Tony Blair ran for the office of prime minister of Great Britain on a platform calling for the banning of handguns. He did this following the massacre of 19 toddlers at a school in Scotland. Pundits said he was committing political suicide. Guess what! He won.

Here in the United States, the one word that strikes fear in the heart every parent or grandparent is "lock-down." That word epitomizes the biggest news story of 2007, the massacre of 32 college students at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

We have to follow the example of Sweden, Japan, Australia and Great Britain. All of these countries have banned handguns.

We have forgotten that America's Wild West was tamed when, having built a schoolhouse and a church, the townspeople told the sheriff that he could no longer allow anyone to ride in to town with a six-shooter.

The sheriff's job was made easier by the fact that, in those days, anyone who carried a concealed gun was considered to be a coward.

America has become a nation of cowards -- those who carry concealed handguns and those who are afraid to speak out against them.

It is time for a change.

Gus Gustafson

Huntley