Mass shootings and the Second Amendment lie

Boulder police station

Letter to the editor in today's NY Times:

Re “10 People Shot Dead by Gunman Inside a Colorado Grocery Store” (front page, March 23):

How many people have to die in mass shootings before there is the political will to pass reasonable gun control legislation such as a renewed assault weapons ban?

Initial reports suggest that the Boulder, Colo., gunman used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Similar weapons were used in the Aurora movie theater shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Orlando nightclub shooting, Las Vegas shooting, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and Tree of Life synagogue shooting.

Experience shows that an assault weapons ban would save lives. The number of mass shootings with six or more fatalities fell 37 percent during the 10-year period beginning in 1994 when an assault weapons ban was in effect as compared with the preceding 10-year period. 

After the ban expired in 2004, the number of mass shootings with six or more fatalities rose 183 percent over the ensuing 10-year period.

Thoughts and prayers won’t stop the bloodshed and tears. But a well-crafted assault weapons ban would reduce the number and lethality of mass shootings.

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

Rob's comment:

This situation has been created by conservative/Republican governments over the years based on the Second Amendment lie. Instead of dealing with their gun fetish in discussions with their therapists, they have inflicted it on the country.

It's contemptible and unacceptable. If Biden and Democrats can get rid of the filibuster, the country can deal with the gun madness and other serious issues that Republicans are preventing from being addressed.

See Garry Wills To Keep and Bear Arms and The Second Amendment Does Not Transcend All Others and Six Leading Rationalizations for Doing Nothing About Gun Violence.