Guns, guns, guns: Readers respond to mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa
Mental health is the issue, not guns
It is impossible in a nation of 400 million guns in private hands to make gun control possible. New Zealand and other countries with few guns in private hands can do so, not us.
The real problem is with families who out of ignorance or shame or sheer perversity will not report their kids' problems to schools, teachers or sports team leaders. Their kids when old enough will get guns and possibly use them in terrible devastating ways. The problem is with our mothers and fathers, not with guns.
Our Georgia politicians have made the carrying of guns easier but they have not dealt with mental health issues and possible facilities for families. Chatham County has done nothing for families with troubled kids.
Norman Ravitch, Savannah
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Other countries learned from their tragedies. Why can't we?
Most developed nations have experienced mass shootings. But the responses to those killings have been vastly different than in the U.S.
In 1996, 16 children and one teacher were killed at Dunblane Primary School in Britain. The following year, Britain voted to ban handguns. There has not been a school shooting since and Britain has one of the lowest levels of gun violence in the world.
That same year, a gunman killed 35 people at a tourist site in Australia. This shooting led to a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. Thousands of unlicensed firearms were surrendered under a gun amnesty program. Australia has suffered few mass shootings in the 26 years since.
Similar actions can be cited in other wealthy nations; Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Norway to name a few. Only the United States has consistently refused to tighten gun laws. In 2019, the number of U.S. deaths from gun violence was roughly 18 times the average rate in other developed countries and over 200 mass shootings have already been reported this year.
Worldwide, the correlation between homicides to the number of guns owned is staggering and indisputable. The U.S. is the only nation in the world where civilian-owned guns outnumber people.
The majority of Americans favor common-sense gun laws. But GOP lawmakers, citing the archaic Second Amendment or some other nonsense, have blocked gun legislation time after time. They offer thoughts and prayers while our children keep getting slaughtered. Only in America!
James Howell, Savannah
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Why are legislatures and NRA conventions gun-free zones?
The NRA held its convention in Texas with no weapons permitted to be brought into the proceedings. The U.S. Congress doesn't allow visitors to bring weapons into the capitol building or its sessions. Most if not all state legislatures do not permit weapons to be brought into their legislative sessions.
These groups advocate allowing guns just about everywhere but their own backyards. Why? What is it they're afraid of? Is it that they know what weapons in the hands of people who are suicidal, who have grievances or who are just crazy can do? This self-protection is hypocritical and cowardly.
Most politicians act only after they have calculated how their actions will keep themselves in office. They respond well to their most generous political contributors but the remainder of us generally get lip service.
That's why I fear little will be done in response to the Uvalde shooting. Invoking God's name and doing absolutely nothing is their political mantra. Let's face it. What's more important: a contributor who has given you millions of dollars to allow you to be a perpetual senator or representative or citizens who want to attend school safely or who want to shop at a grocery store without being killed. We know the answer to that. God save us from such as these.
Joseph Paslawski, Tybee Island
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This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Reader letters debate mass shootings, mental health, gun control
