It is "overwhelmingly clear" that disarming potential victims will not deter a criminal intent on harming others in a church, a school or anyplace else. Those who claim that victim disarmament laws will protect us are either woefully ignorant or have ulterior motives. There exists an abundant number of instances of unarmed victims being killed, injured or taken hostage by criminals who quite obviously care nothing about the law. (The Cody, Wyo., school incident comes immediately to mind.)
Politicians who think they can change criminal human nature with a wave of their legislative hand are dangerous. The best deterrent to armed criminals is the knowledge that their victim(s) may be armed. I recently lived in Maryland for a year and, as I wrote my Maryland state senator, I felt much safer in Utah where all my neighbors were armed.
Richard L. (Dick) Partridge
Brigham City