Please allow me to express my disgust with your June 19 editorial on gun violence (“Our Opinion: Gun violence deserves public health approach,” June 19) as briefly as possible, though I could easily write several pages on the topic.

1. When did gun violence become a disease? Forty-nine people were murdered in Orlando. Why would you call that a disease instead of what it really is — a brutal crime?

2. You lump all gun violence with that crime as if all gun violence is the same. When a police SWAT team kills a gun-wielding hostage taker, is that a disease we should be looking for a vaccine to treat? When SEAL Team 6 shot Osama Bin Laden, was that a disease we should wear condoms to prevent? Both were definite examples of gun violence.

3. You propose that the CDC should research gun violence. What makes you think the CDC is any more capable than our military is to study gun violence in war or the FBI is to study gun violence in criminal activity?

4. Have you ever considered the hypocrisy of hiding the authors’ identities behind the label “editorial board”? On your “contact us” page you list 10 people with the word “editor” in their titles. Did each and every one contribute a paragraph or two? Was there unanimous agreement on each and every word? You make writers of letters to the editor sign their names. Why are you afraid to sign yours? If I form a Committee of Enlightenment, will you print letters using only that signature without knowing who all of the members are?

Roger Sproul

Augusta

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