Gun Control

Gun control is a very complicated topic. One in which there is no black and white answer. The Constitution gives us as Americans the right to own a firearm. I agree with this right that has been given to us. If you are a hunter then I believe that you should be able to own a rife or a shotgun. I don't believe that the reason why there are multiple gun related deaths in the United States is because of the amount of guns in the country. I believe it is the person with the gun who is the problem. Every year I go to Montana about twice a year. Everyone there owns a gun and is allowed to show it. In every pickup truck there is a rifle hanging in the back of the window. In Montana there are close to no deaths per year due to gun related violence. This is interesting because Montana has one of the largest amount of guns statewide. However you hear everyday in Chicago about someone in the bad parts getting killed by guns. In my opinion there should be gun regluations that accomodate the demographics of each state. Such as I do not believe that someone should be able to own a gun in the city of Chicago. Why would u need to own a gun in Chicago besides to kill someone. However if you are out in a rural area where there is a lot of hunting then I believe that it is ok. I also believe that automatic weapons should be available and ammunition should be much much harder to get.

Wrongful Convictions

After sitting in on the presentastion by Terrill Swift, I experienced many emotions. It was mind boggling to me that the police whose jobs are to protect Chicago would be so crooked and corrupt. They denied Terrill a lawyer which is illegal, and they also lied to him and tricked him into signing a confession by saying that if he signed it, he would be able to go home. When Terrill was just 17 year old, the police called his house looking for him claiming that he was "harboring" or hiding someone. This was clearly a lie becuase he was doing no such thing. The police took him down to the precinct and then told him that they knew that he had raped and killed an alleged prostitute. Terrill and three other men were charged with the rape and murder of a woman. When on trial, Terrill told the court that "he would be back" because he knew that since he didn't do it, he would be eventually freed. While in prison, Terrill wrote to Northwestern University, who has a very well known wrongful conviction program. Northwestern took the case and eventually in 2010 and during this following January, Terrill was free. However after he was free from jail was considered a sex offender which severely effected his life. Where ever he lived he had to identify himself as a sex offender and most people would not hire him. Terrill eventually got the sex offender title revoked and he now life a free life and is trying to get his life back together.

F/A-18 Crash into Virginia Beach Apartment Complex

http://news.yahoo.com/jet-crash-virginia-beach-fiery-not-deadly-080400895.html

Over the weekend, the news story that engulfed the media was the incident that involved a Boeing F/A-18 fighter jet flown by the U.S. Navy crashing into a Virgina Beach apartment complex. The two pilots were just starting off their day with a training mission. Within two minutes of taking off, the jet experienced technical problems which are still unknown. It can be assumed that the jet lost all power and thus unable to control the plane. The pilots took the proper precautions such as trying to release as much fuel as possible to reduce the magnitude of the inevitable crash. Dumping the fuel prevented a much larger and hotter fire which could have caused more casualties. Miraculously not a single person was killed in the fiery explosion. Following the crash there were 7 people including the pilots with minor injuries. Usually when pilots experience fatal problems with their aircraft they are trained to ditch the jet in a field or a large body of water. In fact the Atlantic Ocean was only a half a mile from the crash site. This tells us that they truly had no power or control of the aircraft. The pilots were found no more than 100 feet from the crash site which indicates that they stayed with the jet as long as possible to try and steer the jet out of highly populated civilian areas. The pilots did everything right and thankfully no one was killed.