Letter - What would have happened to Twin Towers if pilots would have had guns?

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To the editor:

For those of you who would like to severely restrict our right to bear arms, I would like to give you some food for thought. Do you realize that if on 9-11 those four airline pilots had been carrying a .45 under their coats, the Twin Towers would probably still be standing, several thousand people would still be living and four multi-million-dollar commercial planes would still be flying?

We once were the strongest nation in the world and yet we made it possible for four criminals with a $3 box cutter to alter our country forever.

We have recently seen an outbreak of piracy on the high seas. Why is it that four criminals in a 16-foot dinghy with a 20-horse Evinrude motor and a couple of AK47s could take over a ship that is twice the length of a football field and 22 stories high from keel to bridge? I was not aware that merchant ships cannot carry weapons. It seems to me that every ship that carries an American flag should have a few rifles and handguns in the possession of a few well-trained men who know how to use them.

For eight years, I attended a one-room country school where every farm boy carried a pocketknife and most carried live .22 caliber rounds in their pocket. Today, a misguided youth could smuggle a gun into school and he would know for certain that he would have several minutes before law enforcement could get there, and he could kill as many students and teachers as he wished.

I do not offer a solution for this, but I do know that of the 30 students who went to our country school, every one went home to both a mother and father and we were taught to love one another and to obey the law.

Bob Mostad

Osakis, MN

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