Letter: Reader advocates for violence control over gun control

To the Editor:

Everyone is running around demanding “common sense gun control.” If you’re one of them I have three questions for you.

First, short of legislation to deny all gun possession and ownership, what law would you write to prevent someone who has already accepted his own death as the price for killing someone else from doing so?

Second, if someone has an AR-15 in their possession that was legally purchased and has never been used illegally or in the commission of a crime, on what grounds do you declare their property (that firearm) illegal and destructive to society?

Finally, suppose you and your family are in a convenience store when three knife wielding thugs come in demanding everyone’s money or your lives; at that moment, what weapons would you not wish to have available for use in saving your family? What weapon would you consider “too large or two deadly” to have on hand at that moment?

Under these circumstances we are right to ask questions, but we must ask the right questions. Perhaps we should start with what has changed.

Why do we no longer value life or know how to end confrontation civilly?

There are about 20,000 people murdered with guns each year in the U.S., why do we focus so intently on those killed in large numbers and essentially ignore the rest?

Many murders are gang and drug related but you rarely see politicians demanding legislation to crack down on them. Why is that?

If you want to put a dent in violence those are the questions to be asked, but no one is asking those. Why is that?

Maybe what we should be demanding is “common sense violence control,” but that would mean our leaders were actually serious about doing something – and they aren’t.

They just want the guns.

Mike Pflum

Waverly