Letter to the Editor: Let’s Do Everything We Can to Reduce Gun Violence While Protecting Right to Bear Arms 

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I am a big fan of Sen. John Braun and thank him for serving in the state Legislature. And I would agree with much of his commentary on the editorial page of the April 22 edition of The Chronicle concerning the recent banning of assault weapons in Washington state. 

But I have one serious point of contention. In it, he states, “Take away the gun qualifier and the true constant is not the object. It’s the people.” 

I would contend it is both guns and people, not one or the other. It takes two to tango and guns without people to pull the trigger are harmless. 

And in relation to assault weapons, it turns out that a study by JAMA on gun homicides in Boston between 2010 and 2015 found that the use of small caliber weapons reduced the number of deaths by 40 percent. So the type of guns made available to criminals and the mentally ill does matter. 



Gun violence is an extremely serious problem in our country right now. There were over 44,000 deaths and 647 mass shootings in 2002, according to Gun Violence Archives. It’s an insane epidemic. Haven’t we seen enough of innocent little kids being slaughtered in this country? Let’s do everything we possibly can to make gun ownership as safe as possible while still preserving the right to bear arms responsibly. 

 

Erik Dahl 

Centralia