Are guns really the best weapon to carry?
An article in this newspaper on April 12 reported: “(The accused fatally) shot 26-year-old Justin Smith, of China, in the face with a handgun after an altercation Dec. 4 between two groups of men that started inside the pub and then spilled outside.”
The accused claims self-defense after being punched in the face.
Now, Smith is dead and his 30-year-old “victim” is accused of murder. Do we say, “It wasn’t the gun or the bullet that killed, it was alcohol — or an unbridled temper — or paranoia — or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
At the very least, to my way of thinking, it was a poor decision to have carried a loaded gun around in the first place. One young man is dead and another is trying to reach a settlement to avoid trial.
Death is final no matter the weapon, but loaded guns bring death more quickly and surely, and too often perhaps unintentionally.
Mary Barnard
Augusta
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