Letter to the Editor:

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Stop blaming guns for the actions of criminals. All American can agree on at least one thing: A world with less violence is a good thing. Notice I did not say gun violence, domestic violence, or hate-crime based violence. All violence is an issue, and those who commit those acts should be punished. The nature of criminals is that they do not follow laws. Writing more restrictions into law will not deter criminals from committing crimes. They do not follow the laws, to begin with, and why would they start now? The article [We need stricter gun laws to stop gun violence, Oct. 31, 2018] says, ‘Gun control may not prevent all shootings, but something has to be done because society is becoming more accustomed and desensitized to these shootings, which isn’t good.’ Writing laws that will have no effect on the actions of those who already will not follow the law to make people feel good about making progress is unproductive and pushes us back from having the real conversation. I will concede that background checks are a common-sense measure to fight against gun violence. Although, there are significant issues with the system. Namely keeping criminal infractions off of juvenile records and allowing minors to not face the consequences of their actions. Instead of forgiving and forgetting the crimes of youth, such as drug offenses and run-ins with the police, we need to rehabilitate and remember, so when that child that got caught selling coke tries to buy a handgun legally, they cannot because of their record. I retain the objections to assuming that a background check will stop gun violence. If a criminal wants to buy a gun, they will get one. It is not a matter of whether a background check will prevent criminals from getting guns, because it will not. Thinking that because now weapons are banned, criminals will not use that weapon is a naïve belief that criminals will follow the law. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.”- Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of NRA. Maxwell James, freshman accounting major