Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
Let’s never forget the tragedy we all experienced last October, that for some of our neighbors was the worst day of their lives. After so many similar tragedies throughout our country, it may feel as though this is normal, and that we are always waiting or preparing for the next tragedy.
But it is not normal, and it doesn’t have to be this way. Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis, and public health and safety measures can abate it. Let’s not consider it inevitable.
As a society we need to humbly reconsider our relationship to firearms and an attitude of violence. We have put regulations on motor vehicles because we know they are dangerous objects, but we have not treated firearms with the same respect.
The 2nd Amendment speaks of a “well regulated militia” — but it seems we have completely ignored the “well-regulated” part of that dictum. Regulations such as waiting periods for purchasing, and strong universal background checks have solid evidence for reducing death from homicide and suicide. In 2017, the U.S. represented 4.4 percent of the global population, but accounted for 42 percent of gun ownership, and at that time we had eight times the gun death rate as Canada.
These tragedies are preventable, but it takes policy and legislation that is attentive to public health, and a society that will collectively say that we value human life over the right to bear arms when those rights are seemingly in conflict.
Marya Goettsche Spurling, MD
New Sharon
