U-T San Diego recently published a story examining the gun control beliefs of three neighbors on Bundy Drive in Santee. The views ranged from an ardent gun rights supporter and hunter, a school administrator in favor of gun control to someone in the middle, whose son was injured in the Santana shooting in 2001.
School Administrator Pat Keeley
The article paints Keeley as a believer in gun control, in favor of heightened background checks when buying a gun and a ban on assault weapons, though he said people have an absolute right to own a gun.
He was taught to shoot in his youth, but doesn't allow guns in his household.
“I think that the Constitution is a document that was written in a much different time. You know, if we want to say that the Constitution is unchangeable or uninterpretable, that’s ridiculous,” he told the Union Tribune.
Ron Spagnola, hunter
In the article Ron Spagnola is pictured with a hunting rifle and the bust of a deer on the wall of his home. He was trained with firearms in the U.S. Navy, owns a collection of various weapons, and is a member of On Target for Jesus, a church shooting club.
Guns are a serious part of Spagnola's life, and the potential consequences of gun violence are black and white to him- his son was a freshman at Santana during the 2001 shooting. He told the Union Tribune that the "gun didn't kill the person," blaming the shooting on unsecured weapons and no support system for the shooter, Andy Williams.
He owns firearms as a hunter, for recreation and for protection.
Considering gun control, he is of the same mind set of the NRA- the only solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
“If you were to ban all guns from everybody, does the criminal really care? No," he told the Union Tribune.
Elizabeth Serrato, son injured in Santana shooting
For Elizabeth Serrato, Santee was a "promised land," a safe, relatively crime-free neighborhood. On March 5, 2001 that security was shattered, when her son Raymond, a student at Santana High School, was shot.
Raymond recovered after weeks in hospital, but has lasting health affects from the bullet that remains lodged in his chest. Elizabeth doesn't like guns, and doesn't allow them (or any toy guns) in her house.
She doesn't think that fewer guns or more gun control would have prevented her son from being shot, and because of that is only in favor of tighter background checks and a longer wait period for gun purchases.
In the end she suggests that "there has to be something else," another solution to the gun violence problem that continues to evade us.
Read the whole story at U-T San Diego
Correction: Pat Keeley was not a principal at Santana High School.
