LETTER: Gun control will stop the killing

Richard Reed of Kila knows more about guns than I do, and I can live with that. But the question is not what is or is not an assault weapon but how to stop mass shootings.  

Mr. Reed’s solution is elimination of gun-free zones and having more armed civilians everywhere. (Oft quoted, “good guys with guns.”) First, there is no record of any mass shooting being stopped by an armed citizen and there have been 133 such events just in 2016. Second, do you really think that having more armed individuals pulling out weapons in a crowded theater or nightclub will make things better? I think that is a cowboy fantasy born of too many such movies as kids. Even in those movies, the sheriff made everybody turn in their weapons before entering town.

Another oft-mentioned idea in defense of guns is that an armed society is a polite society. So do we stop loud music or being cut off in traffic by just brandishing a gun or do we teach manners by shooting the offenders dead?

Do you argue that gun control doesn’t work? Check out Australia, where after a mass shooting they enacted strict controls and actually gathered up tons of guns. No more mass shootings. They have about 15 guns per 1,000 persons; we have 88.8. Are we more free than them?

The Second Amendment was enacted in defense of muskets, but now we have weapons with folding stocks and banana clips, even handguns with 20-round magazines, all available to almost anyone. How do we keep such weapons away from the mentally ill or terrorists?

Suggesting that if we ban certain weapons, they will be smuggled in from Mexico is a separate problem. Let’s all try to come up with some solutions that work. The killing must stop.

—Steve Wheat, Polson