Rich Lowry’s commentary in The Tribune (Oct. 4) concerning the massacre in Las Vegas claimed, “the off-the-shelf obsessions of gun-control advocates would not do the slightest thing to stop it.” Where has he been? Who rejected the assault weapons ban and all the gun regulations that produced a safer society? The killings in Las Vegas never would have happened in 1980. Assault weapons were illegal.
Gun regulations, although inadequate, were far superior before gun manufacturers, the NRA, and paid-off Republican politicians added one permissive gun law after another, and fought every reasonable regulation. It is time to restore intelligent gun laws that easily comply with the Second Amendment. However, no individual should have the weapons and ammunition capable of killing hundreds.
The NRA and GOP own the debacle in Las Vegas. They did not pull the trigger, but they did everything to make it possible. They are as guilty as the father who leaves a loaded gun on the dresser that results in his 4-year-old shooting a little brother.
Indifferent, sociopathic legislators who accept 33,000 annual gun deaths as normal need to be replaced by those who insist that a nation free of gun violence is not only a goal, but the government’s responsibility.
Ron Molen, Salt Lake City