Letters to the editor for Jan 11
Released prisoners don’t make us safer
In response to James Werrell’s Friday column, “Republicans, gun lobby, oppose even sensible measures”: What sensible measures has Obama mandated to make our country safe when he mandated 165,000 people be released from prison? Some of the people were rapists and murderers. What about the sensible measures (that the evil Republicans oppose) that illegally released 17 USA-haters from the prison in Guantanamo Bay?
I guess to a Democrat sensible measures mean these things: The 200 more agents he is hiring to check behind the paperwork when buying a weapon will help the unemployment figures. If he keeps hiring federal employees, the unemployment figure could go to zero! Wouldn’t that look good to the people who really believe it is five percent now.
If these sensible measures are so important to the president, then why didn’t the Democrats, when they had the majority in the House and Senate, pass these measures?
J. W. Floyd
Rock Hill
As gun numbers rose, crime fell
No one, including President Obama, is more distressed, appalled and sickened by the recent spate of mass shootings in this country than I, but his insistence that further gun control measures are the answer to the problem is patently false. In fact, his justification for such measure – that we are in the midst of an “epidemic of gun violence” and that at least part of the reason for this alleged epidemic is the number of guns in our nation – is a falsehood.
No one really knows the number of guns in the United States, but the best estimates say that the number has just about doubled in the past 25 years from around 150 million to somewhere around 300 million. The FBI began compiling crime statistics in 1930.
From that time to about 1990, the rate of violent crimes and homicides slowly but steadily rose; but, curiously, about 1990 there began a fairly steady decline. In fact, by 2015 violent crimes and homicide rates had fallen right at 50 percent from the peak to the point where we, as U.S. citizens, are in general safer now than we have been in 85 years! Where is the epidemic?
I am not one who claims that the fall in crime rates is attributable to the increase in the number of guns; the reasons for this decline are too many to make such an assertion. But the idea that more guns equals more crime is clearly false.
William White
Chester
Fiorina blueprint makes good sense
Two things are essential for a proper education: a good parent and a good teacher. The Department of Education can provide neither.
Carly Fiorina’s approach to education is just what we need to help get our country back on track.
Parents need to have a maximized role in their child’s education – they should have as many choices for schooling as possible. We need to ensure all children can reach their God-given potential, just like Carly.
We should also allow choice in higher education by privatizing the student loan programs. Federalizing the student loan business creates high loans for college education.
Carly has enjoyed great success in her life. From secretary to CEO, her story is only possible in this country.
Holly Morgan
Rock Hill
This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor for Jan 11."