Regulations won’t take away guns

Mr. (Timothy) Rasmussen points out that blaming guns for violence is wrong (“Don’t blame the rock,” June 9), and that making guns illegal will not stop the mass killings. He likens it to blaming rocks for doing violence. True, as he says, rocks are not evil, they are morally neutral. And also true, guns are morally neutral. But he misses the point. Most people do not want to eliminate guns.

Let’s consider rocks. A few years ago, in Oregon, two people in a car were killed on a country road, when a large rock rolled off the upper bank of the road. This morally neutral rock, if it had been noticed by the road district, would have been removed in the interest of safety. It wouldn’t make rocks illegal. Freak accidents also happen when knives are used carelessly. My mother always told me to never run with a pair of scissors or a knife in my hand.

Gun regulations, such as making assault weapons more difficult for unbalanced folks to procure, removing “rocks from overhanging road banks,” should not be a difficult idea for gun lovers to fathom. Gun regulations or making certain kinds of guns illegal, or even difficult to procure, is in no way making “guns illegal,” as Mr. Rasmussen wrongly thinks. President Obama was accused of wanting to take our guns away even before he was elected, causing massive gun sales. I still have my guns, as do you, Mr. Rasmussen. False accusations caused by false fear.

Ron Boothe

Kingston, Idaho