Mental afflictions are source of shootings
Each public mass shooting triggers a torrent of rapid-fire commentary, political posturing and arguments laced with massive misinformation. One might think the recurring nature of these events would have led to greater accuracy in dealing with their details, but no. Each event’s disjointed aftermath becomes as numbing to the public’s senses as did the horrible event itself.
Mona Charen’s “Mass shootings: America’s expression of madness,” Opinion, Oct. 9, at least targets the predominant source of these shootings with her focus on mental illness and “the spiritual emptiness and loneliness that afflicts a subset of our people.” The shootings end with holes in the victims but always begin with holes in the shooter. A weapon is merely the tool the perpetrator wields in an attempt to fill the void.
GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA
More restrictions needed on guns
The letter-writer of “Liberals already yelling for gun control,” Readers Write, Oct. 9, is yet another example of a misguided conservative who actually believes banning automatic weapons gives those weapons only to criminals. The reason the Las Vegas killer didn’t use a more deadly weapon such as a grenade launcher that would have easily killed many more concert goers is because those weapons are illegal. A flag would’ve been raised for anyone attempting to acquire this or similar weapons.
Imagine if automatic firearms were illegal. Any attempt to acquire these would allow law enforcement agencies to use sting or similar operations to detect potential killers. As it is, these items are legal and law enforcement can’t touch or otherwise identify anyone attempting to acquire them.
Thank you NRA for allowing anyone to legally purchase weapons that are used for no other purpose than to quickly kill masses of people.
GEORGE KOVACH, BUFORD
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