Gun control won’t help

I would first like to give Ms. Hopkins my condolence’s for the loss of her brother, it is a horrible thing (“Still waiting for action to stop gun violence,” Guest Opinion, Feb. 11).

I believe this article is slanted to make it appear as a worse problem then we have. If you lump suicides into the gun violence numbers it gives a disproportionate appearance to make your point. Almost every mass shooting has been done by people or children with mental health issues.

We have forced our schools to stop punishing children and this has allowed the bully culture to expand and flourish. I grew up at a different time when and where guns were accepted as tools and we all had them. As a young adult I stayed with a friend and took my rifle on a school bus to school and put it in my locker. After school I rode my friend’s bus and took the rifle on his bus and we went squirrel hunting. What a contrast today.

Do you really think gun control will help? We have billions of dollars of drugs coming into our country by armed smugglers. Do you believe gun control will help? Mexico has the toughest gun laws in the world, they also have the highest per-capita death rate from guns.

E. Allen Cook

Spokane Valley