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Letter to the Editor: Can We Control Ourselves?

The GOP has found a scapegoat for their failure to enact common sense gun control: it is ISIS. After the massacre at Orlando Senator McCain laid the blame on President Obama saying that his policies in the Middle East were responsible for the rise of ISIS and that ISIS was implicated in the Orlando shooting. After the failure of the senate to pass some weak gun control legislation other GOP spokespersons, including Paul Ryan, echoed McCain’s statement. Were the Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech or the Dallas shooters disciples of ISIS? Did ISIS provide the guns and the training for the Orlando shooter and do we credit ISIS for that shooting just because the shooter made a phone call to someone dedicating his act to ISIS? He purchased the guns from a dealer a week before the massacre. We spend much time and money after the fact trying to find out what motivated a deranged mind but that knowledge does little good if that person is easily able to get a gun.

Other civilized countries control gun violence by controlling the availability of assault-type guns. Our second amendment wasn’t written in stone on Mt. Horeb and if it is our excuse for not using common sense let’s scrap it. We need to follow Australia’s example and enact sensible gun control which includes buy-back of guns and most of all to get rid of the weaklings in congress such as our own Ron Johnson who are beholden to the NRA.

 

George Krall

La Crosse, Wis.

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