This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What more can the gun culture demand — a culture where gun addiction is considered a virtue?
In 30 years, will every citizen, including teachers, be armed? Will students be wearing bullet-proof uniforms?
Will police be afraid to leave their bulletproof cars? Will theaters be closed because patrons fear attending a movie or concert?
This sounds over the top, but who would have thought in 1980 that 30 years later in Utaht:
• 120,000 armed individuals would be wandering the streets with concealed weapons willing to shoot to kill;
• that legislation has to satisfy gun addicts before and at the expense of everyone else;
• that members of the dominant religion are actually members of the majority party of greed, guns and groveling at the feet of the National Rifle Association;
• that guns are allowed in schools, churches and on college campuses; and
• that men attend state legislative hearings openly carrying a semiautomatic rifle?
Yet gun addicts are never satisfied.
As for Brigham Young's goal of the peaceful kingdom of God in a promised land, just forget it. We're charging hell-bent in the opposite direction.
Ron Molen
Salt Lake City