Hysteria over gun control

The Viewpoints section of the June 23-29, 2022, edition contained a letter regarding “School shootings: weapons of mass destruction.” The author of that particular post wanted to “End the madness: Make the availability of possessing these weapons limited to the people paid and trained to protect us.”

First of all, we are bound by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is not the Bill of Wants or Desires. We possess unalienable rights. The Second Amendment allows us to bear arms. The founding fathers didn’t return from a hunting trip and decide we needed guns for that purpose. They just finished a war of independence with a country that wanted to take away their freedoms. If they didn’t have the means to defend and protect themselves and fight against that tyranny, we wouldn’t have a United States of America today.

There is so much hysteria about gun control these days and calls to pass stricter gun control laws, etc. Unfortunately, the locations with the strictest gun control laws have the most gun violence, so gun control and background checks don’t work to curtail gun violence. Stricter laws will not keep guns out of the possession of criminals. The problem is not with the guns, but with the person pulling the trigger. The majority of gun owners in this country are law abiding and do not go on killing rampages. That is reserved for those who are mentally unstable, under the influence of drugs, and, in many cases, obtained firearms illegally. Plus, the majority of gun related homicides involve handguns and not the “assault rifles” that are widely publicized.

Let’s put things in perspective. There is a total of approximately 18,000 people killed by various means each year, from firearms to hammers, knives, explosives and poison, etc. Of that total, handguns (over 8,000 handgun murders occur each year) are responsible for approximately 60% of deaths caused by firearms, which is a much greater number than that by AR15s, which receive most of the sensational news. There are approximately 42,000 deaths by motor vehicle crashes. What are we doing about that? Should we ban cars? What about annual medical malpractice deaths, which number a whopping 251,000? Ban hospitals and doctors? How about prescription drug deaths numbering almost 70,000 per year? Ban all medications?

I think you get my point. Even one death is one too many. However, there are far more important issues concerning us than targeting law abiding citizens and attempting to take away their guns. If that does happen, rest assured the criminals who do most of the killing and robbery and who possess illegal weapons will not care about the laws and will continue to murder at will.

If there is a home invasion by a gun or weapon wielding criminal, the people who are supposed to protect you will arrive after the crime is complete, and will have offered absolutely no protection at all. There simply are not enough police to protect everyone in every situation. We must rely on ourselves. Help rarely comes when needed, but after the fact. What about the police officers in Uvalde who were trained, but offered no protection for the children murdered in that school? How does that square with limiting the availability and possession of these weapons to the people who are paid and trained to protect us?!

Charles Markarian

Hardyston