Knee-jerk defenses to guns

Robert B. Smith’s recent op-ed (“Rationality should guide firearms measures,” April 13) offered a shocking response to a population wrestling with the question of how to end mass shootings.

The question we need to be asking isn’t “Should teachers be armed?” or “Should we teach everyone CPR?” We need to be asking, “Why are we such a violent nation?” and “How can we stop mass shootings?” Perhaps, though, the first question is “How can we get military assault weapons out of the hands of civilians and police?”

We know now that school - and social media - bullying are often factors in school shootings, and that non-school-shooters often have histories of domestic violence. Hmmmm, sense a pattern?

Surely the answers lie in child abuse prevention programs, better mental health services, community-building and strong gun control. Study after study has shown that when fewer guns are available, gun deaths decrease. Period.

Turning our schools into prisons with impenetrable exteriors and metal detectors inside, arming teachers (if I were the mother of black children, I would remove them from that school immediately) and teaching everyone CPR are the most damaging and ineffective responses I can imagine.

We need logical responses, not knee-jerk defenses.

Marianne Torres

Spokane