Letter: Live by the sword…

Is just some type of mirage?: Total firearm related death rate per 100,000 population: US 10.2, Canada 4.78, United Kingdom 0.25, Japan 0.07. Guns per 100 residents: US 88.8, Canada 30.8, United Kingdom 6.2, Japan 0.6. About 25% of the US population own guns (80 million gun owners). 74% of the 4 million NRA members support some form of gun reform legislation including background checks on all potential gun buyers. So applying the 26% of NRA member who don't support gun reform legislation to the wider 25% of the US population who own guns: 26% X 25% = 6.25% of the total US population may be the vocal 2nd amendments remedy minority who is all riled up by the John Bircher Koch money that also conveniently backs Republican tax cuts for the wealthy billionaire Kochs.

The problen we seem to have today is the idea that solutions are easy. Just get rid of the guns and no more violence. Just keep funding more and more entitlement programs and folks will magically lift their way out of poverty. We seem to have an issue here with folks not being able to see what does not work, address it, and fix it. They applies to education, spending, laws etc. Broken programs will never work. Till we fix background checks for guns and allow medical history included, and we address waste and fraud in programs nothing will work. We have become a society of non thinkers and have forgotten how to problem solve and fix things.

The NRA makes a convenient target for surface thinkers but a deeper review illustrates that violence problems existed during the ages of the knife, then swords, then arrows, now guns and very very soon - focused energy weapons. During all of these phases there have been laws prohibiting hurting/killing innocents and all that time = criminals and the criminally insane have disregards those laws. So now you want to repeat what has been proven to not work? Its not the technology = its the human behaviors we need to change. We need new strategies not knee jerk calls for what has not worked.

I know for a fact that the head honcho at NRA would like to attack that section of Chicago which houses thousands of gun slinging , gang bangers who can't recite the alphabet. I would sign up to day to be a part of the attack team. The next target would be Lowell, Ma.