The letter by Miss Safford in the Nov. 6 Kent Reporter (“Let’s do more on gun control”), expresses compassionate feelings but is totally impractical, and at odds with the evidence.
Passing more laws does not enforce any current law. Criminals violate the law; that is what they do. Thus old or new laws have no effect on the criminal. Enforcement of the law is necessary for a law to be effective.
She cites school shootings, including Sandy Hook Elementary School. Sandy Hook was a “gun free zone,” i.e., no guns allowed, yet it did not prevent the shooting. One armed guard at the door would have saved all of the students.
A study (www.beliefnet.com) was published in 2007, titled: “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” The study came from the Harvard Journal of Law. The report “found some surprising things.” Essentially it found a near inverse relationship to gun ownership and gun crime. In the USA, cities with extremely high murder rates have the most restrictive gun control laws.
Aggressive action to stop a shooter is a far better solution than writing a law, which all criminals will ignore. Intervention and action to take out the shooter works.
Alek Skarlatos and his two friends saved many lives by taking out a terrorist killer on a French train. Ironically, he went to the Oregon college Miss Stafford cites.
– Bill Malinski
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