Your Opinion: Response to Sampson on gun control

Dear Editor:

I was taken aback by Steve Sampson's letter to the editor (Marxist Leninists back gun control) so much so, I had to write a letter in response.

Yes there were over six million auto accidents in the USA last year, but the key word is accident. No one leaves their home and gets into a car planning an accident. Unfortunately, too many individuals with guns and especially automatic assault weapons do not go out and shoot people accidentally, they go out with a purposeful mission in mind: to purposely empty their weapons and cause as much damage to people as they can. Hence, we have car accidents. People with guns hurt people on purpose.

Yes, Mr. Sampson, over 42,000 people die in car accidents and another 2.9 million are injured. Why do we not hear about a ban on driving cars? It's simple. Driving a car is very rigorously regulated.

You have to wait until you are 16, you have to pass a driver's exam, you have to prove you can drive safely with a state employee monitoring your skills, and most of all, you have to get insurance if you want to license your car. Now that's a novel thought - making all gun purchasers purchase insurance for the damage their gun causes when they intentionally and/or unintentionally hurt someone.

I guess you can say Ronald Reagan ("We are writing to urge your support for a ban on the domestic manufacture of military-style assault weapons. This is a matter of vital importance to the public safety," direct Ronald Reagan quote) and I are liberal Marxist Leninist because yes, we are both for gun control, for regulating guns, and thanks to Mr. Sampson, I (because Ron never spoke on this issue) now have become an advocate of licensing guns the way we license drivers - including the law that makes in mandatory for all cars to have insurance.

As for alcohol that's another story, and yes I'm for regulating that too, perhaps that's why places that sell liquor are so well regulated and have a financial liability insurance policy unlike gun sales. And you have to prove you're over 21.

Another thing gun ownership does not have, you can purchase a gun at any age.

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