The following is in response to a letter to the editor titled “Gun justification?” published in the March 14 issue, part of a series of letters The Malibu Times has received on the topic of gun control.
Ms. Ottusch thank you for your spirited response to my letter regarding my view that the U.S. needs to legislate more stringent gun controls.
The statistics I cited regarding gun deaths in the U.S. are accurate and there are numerous sources for these statistics, not just the CDC. The bottom line is the rate of gun deaths in the U.S. are disproportionately high compared to the rest of the world, no matter what source is used and these death rates are in proportion to the high level of gun ownership in our country.
Your arguments that gun control could lead to regulation of every day items, such as hamburgers and alcohol, are irrelevant, as the issue at hand is the danger that guns pose to us because when they are used to murder people it is purposeful. In contrast, while junk food does cause heart disease related death, which is a shame, junk food is consumed voluntarily and I cannot remember the last time a lunatic used a Big Mac as a weapon to commit a mass killing. Car related accidental deaths are also horrible and we have had our fair share of these in Malibu, but they are just that, accidents.
The tragic mass killings that are mounting in the U.S. mostly involve large caliber, military style, high magazine capacity weapons and the commission of these crimes have been premeditated slaughter and somehow these types of guns have fallen in to the hands of madmen. This is what needs to be prevented and there is no logical need for anyone other than law enforcement or the military to own military grade high capacity weapons, period.
As a corollary but not as a comparison, we do have many regulations that govern the use of many every day things that harm people. It is illegal to smoke in restaurant precisely because second hand smoke kills people. This is a smart law that protects the majority of people who do not want to be affected by second hand smoke. Should we not have any laws that keep society safe and peaceful?
Matt Borenzweig