Readers React: America’s willful ignorance on gun violence is deadly

To the editor: To the print headline for this piece, “What we don’t know about guns,” I’d like to add this: “could kill us.”

The 2nd Amendment was designed to protect citizens from the government, not each other. No one would argue that today even a well-armed militia could defend us from hostile government action.

We all agree that determined criminals will always be able to obtain weapons. The underreported numbers of Americans killed or injured by guns held by the law-abiding, however, and the unintended consequences of too many guns and too little regulation are rarely addressed by gun owners or advocates.

Suicide, access to a gun in the heat of the moment, road rage, a disagreement at a sporting event, accidents involving children, and research that shows an armed homeowner is many times more likely to shoot a member of his own family than an intruder: Surely, we want to do something about this, don’t we?

Hal Rothberg, Calabasas

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