I must disagree with Carla Levesque’s solution to the excess gun violence and increase in bigotry in America in her well expressed letter (Monitor letters, Nov. 30).
This past week alone, the morning news has mentioned a gun shot death almost every day. Where? Here in New Hampshire.
Many of these deaths were caused by anger or perceived differences. A fist fight without any guns would have saved two lives – one from immediate death, and one from a lifetime in jail.
The answer to the unbelievably high number of shooting deaths every day in the United States is not for more people to buy guns.
Gun owners should realize that stricter background check laws are needed for carrying a gun openly or concealed. All loopholes must be closed. The innumerable “straw purchases,” which are mainly done by gun dealers who sell a gun without background checks to people who could not legally buy a gun, must be stopped.
And legal gun owners should be required to inform the police department if they are going to sell or give a gun to a relative or stranger.
It is also a responsibility for every gun owner to keep guns safely locked up when not on their person, for the safety of their family members and all other people.
Gun owners do not have the “inalienable right” to own a gun at the expense of the freedom of others to live without fear of being shot for some perceived offense.
“Treat others as you would like to be treated” should hold true in politics, religion, democracy and gun safety.
Joan Lamson
New London