LETTER: How many more shootings?
This is in response to the Sept. 17 letter to the editor from Dave Greenaway, who, in defense of firearms, rightly asks, “When are we going to blame automobiles and such for all the deaths and destruction they have caused in the past and future in this country and/or world (driving impaired, driver with a fraudulent license, age, etc.)?
I would suggest to the thoughtful Mr. Greenawalt that this question has already been somewhat successfully addressed. In order to operate a motorized vehicle, the states already have in place laws requiring drivers education and a requirement for possessing liability insurance.
A similar set of laws exists around the use of alcohol. Fines and escalating jail terms exist for abusers as well as higher insurance premiums for repeat offenders.
Why not recognize the potential for misuse and theft of guns by requiring liability insurance on guns? And possibly some excise taxes in a fund to at least partially reimburse crime victims?
We have just experienced the loss of a great young family man to the hands of another young man who reportedly took his grandfather’s gun to accomplish this nefarious deed. We lock our car doors so our kids don’t get in them and drive away. Isn’t human life of infinitely more value than to leave it so casually at risk?
How many school shootings must we endure?
John Hopper
Washington