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The Lockean Project

Guns don’t kill people

“Guns don’t kill people,” Monterey Herald—June 4, 2022

More mass shootings More rage against guns and, of course, that means more calls for gun control. Are we missing the mark? Guns don’t pull the trigger. It takes a human being to perform that operation. Many, many more people are killed by automobiles every year than by guns. Should we advocate for banning cars?

I think we are focusing on the wrong thing. Deterioration of the family, and thus our values as a nation, appear to have more and more of an effect on the actions of people. The decline of moral values of Americans has a much greater effect on our society than the availability of guns. Should a deranged person own a gun? Absolute not, but maybe society should be looking at why that person is deranged rather than blaming the gun. I was raised with guns in the house but had a father that taught me gun safety but to also respect the lives of others. Shooting somebody, unless my life is being seriously threatened (self-defense), is the last thought in my head, and then I think I would have an awfully hard time pulling the trigger. How many of the shooters we read about had a responsible father in the home? A vast majority did not. Today discerning right from wrong has no absolutes. Laws on the books are not being enforced, so why do we want more? Let’s start putting more emphasis on keeping families together and teaching right from wrong.

Robert McGregor, Salinas