Opinion: Gun laws won’t change until Americans get just as angry over mass shootings as terrorism

To the editor: The deadly toll of mass murders will continue to rise until citizens get more mad than sad. (“We don’t need your prayers in Sin City. We need gun control,” Opinion, Oct. 4)

The repeated national emphasis on sadness that follows these attacks evokes the emotion of empathy and our shared humanity. That is fine, but it does not evoke much action outward. This emotion is cultivated by leaders who do not want us to get angry, unless terrorists, who we are encouraged to fear, are involved. Then it seems to be OK for people get mad and want to do something.

Polls suggest that people don’t fear guns in the hands of Americans, but they do fear terrorists, and this fear underlies most anger. The problem is that we’re not fearful of the more than 300 million guns and especially the millions of assault-type weapons, which can often be transformed into automatic weapons.

The anger must start by changing our mass mediated messages about fear: It is our fellow Americans, often armed to the teeth, who provide the largest threat to our lives. We need to focus on the arms industry, on the lobbyists and on Congress. This cabal has no qualms about providing numerous assault rifles to virtually anyone who wants one, and that is scary.

Let’s mourn the slain, but then let’s get mad at what we should fear.

David Altheide, Solana Beach

The writer, a professor at the Arizona State University School of Social Transformation, is the author of the book “Terrorism and the Politics of Fear.”

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To the editor: Before District of Columbia vs. Heller was decided in 2008, the late Chief Justice Warren Burger correctly called the reasoning underpinning it — that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to own guns — a “fraud.” In fact, there is nothing in the 2nd Amendment that gives ordinary citizens the right to bear arms.

Because I made a film on the American Revolution, I studied colonial society for years. Any historian of that period worth their salt can tell you that the meaning of the amendment is not what Justice Antonin Scalia attributed to it in his Heller decision. If you understand colonial society, it is clear that this language pertains not to individuals but to the state militias — the purpose of the amendment is to establish that the federal government cannot prevent states from maintaining their own armed bodies for their own protection.

This does not mean that the founders intended individuals not to have guns; it means that the Constitution does not address the issue of individuals owning arms. Furthermore, the framers could not have imagined today’s assault weapons any more than they could have imagined iPhones.

Steven Schechter, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: One need only to look at the high homicide rate in Chicago to see that gun control does not prevent murder. Chicago has tough gun laws, and yet it has more homicides than any other U.S. city.

It is supremely more relevant to look at the closing of mental health institutions in California and elsewhere. Currently, there are not enough services for our fellow citizens with mental illnesses, contributing directly to incidents of mass murder.

Spending our resources on helping people suffering from delusions, paranoia, depression and other afflictions is a far better use of that money than trying to defeat the National Rifle Assn. or change the 2nd Amendment.

Catherine Wirtz, Westlake Village

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To the editor: I was raised in a family of hunters and recreational shooters, and my grandfather was a competitive trapshooter. As no stranger to gun culture, I say this: The NRA is no longer a sportsmen’s club.

Today it’s possible to legally purchase weapons and accessories capable of injuring or killing more than 500 people in a short period of time. Until this week, Congress was considering rolling back restrictions on silencers, and legislation was moving to require concealed carry reciprocity among the states.

These laws don’t solve problems, they are problems.

If the Mandalay Bay hotel pool had chemically burned 500 people, we would regulate pool chemicals. We can and should pass common-sense gun laws. For example, AB 424, a bill to keep guns out of K-12 schools, is sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

No more thoughts and prayers. It’s time for action.

Darby Saxbe, Los Angeles

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To the editor: When you purchase and drive a car, you have to be licensed and you need to register the car and pay for insurance; occasionally, one must attend traffic school.

We need to tie gun ownership to the civic duty implicit in the 2nd Amendment phrase “well regulated militia.” The surest path to this is waving the possibility of shiny new revenue streams at our state governments and the insurance industry.

Make gun owners pay in these ways: certifications, registration and licensing that must be renewed; liability insurance; and required public service in the National Guard or local emergency management services.

Freedom isn’t free, as the saying goes, so make gun owners pay for it.

Elisabeth Eliassen, Alameda

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