LETTER: American insanity about guns needs strong cure

To the editor:

Does it bother you that gun violence is now the leading cause of death among children in the United States? What about the fact that there have been 130 mass shootings so far this year with so many occurring in our children’s schools?

It has been said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” America has become an insane nation, at least when it comes to guns.

In my personal opinion, the first truly shocking issue with gun violence in America was when John Wilkes Booth discharged a .44 caliber Derringer to the back of President Abraham Lincoln’s head. Then, there was President McKinley. Then Kennedy. Then Malcolm X. Then Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. At some point, collectively and individually, we all started to accept the things we cannot change. The nearly 40,000 American deaths and 75,000-plus injuries each year, including 8,000 children and teens, has become a staggering yet non-resonating statistic at this point.

Of course, the National Rifle Association and the gun manufacturers of America have a hand in this. Gun sales soar with each onslaught. So do prices. So do profits.

Follow the money. After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, protest marches were held around the country, including Green Bay where one poster listed NRA campaign donations to Wisconsin lawmakers that year: Ron Johnson, $1 million; Mike Gallagher, $43,000; Tammy Baldwin, $0.

It’s not about guns. It’s about money, and at this point, the thousands and thousands of innocent lives that are lost as “collateral damage” each year. Strict Constitutionalists are big on the fact that words like “abortion” and “homosexual” aren’t in the constitution. Neither are “bump-stocks,” “high capacity magazines,” “armor piercing bullets,” “rapid-fire semi-automatics” and “ghost guns.” Why do some words count, and others don’t?

In the time period when the Second Amendment was drafted, a skilled marksman with a muzzle-loading musket could get off two maybe three volleys in a minute. Today, the average mentally-troubled 28-year-old can get off three or more dozen — legally.

That’s the insanity that America has become on guns. More capacity, more shooting, more killing — accompanied by the tortured logic that with enough guns in enough hands, we’ll all be safe. Yeah right, and I’ve got a bridge to sell you — and guns, too. Buy them now. The price is going up, and the value of our lives?

Steve Parks, Bowler

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