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Gun-control laws don’t reduce murder

A few thoughts with regard to the recent letter from Mark Brown. The deaths of the children in Newtown are indeed impossible to comprehend.

Children are the only perfect people in this world, and I, too, grieve for them.

There are already 2,000 gun laws right now and adding more to make people feel they are doing something will not help. The so-called assault weapons ban of 1994 did nothing to change Columbine. That happened five years later.

The killer of the first responders in Webster, N.Y. was a convicted felon. By law, he was not allowed firearms.

According to the Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence, Connecticut and New York are No. 4 and No. 5 on the rating for best gun law states. What these and many recent shootings have in common is the killer dies by his own hand or in a shootout with police.

If someone is willing to die, no law will stop them.

If we wish to see how gun control laws help reduce the murder rate, we can look at Chicago or Washington, D.C. They both have draconian gun laws and Chicago just surpassed 500 gun deaths for the year. Washington, D.C. had 108 murders in 2011.

There is evidence that gun control does not work.

Mexico, Russia and Brazil have more stringent gun control and higher gun violence than the United States. England and Australia both limited firearms and have higher rates of gun violence after the ban.

Gun ownership is triple the rate in Switzerland than in Germany but has a lower murder rate. There is much evidence if you just look for it.

The Second Amendment is not about hunting and sport.

It is about the founding fathers believing that any government can become corrupt and people must have a way of protecting themselves from government.

Brown mentions his deer rifles and semi-automatic shotgun. Do a search and see how many people die from this type of weapon.

The final thought is the use of the term assault weapon. It is a misnomer. An assault weapon has a selective fire system and is used by the military, either fully automatic or single fire each time the trigger is pulled.

Fully automatic has been banned since 1934. Nobody gives that any thought.

Rick Albright

Altoona

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