In the president’s scripted response to the Parkland massacre he did not mention guns, but he did mention the need for improved mental health services (never mind his party’s desire to destroy Obamacare).
OK, but the fact is, we cannot identify, treat, or incarcerate every embittered, violent kid in the nation — or even a small portion of that population. The fundamental problem is the availability of semiautomatic weapons with a high-magazine capacity. The AR-15, the weapon of choice for murderous lunatics, is unsuited to hunting; it is not accurate, the cartridge is likely to grievously wound rather than kill, and you don’t need a 30-round magazine to hunt deer.
But it is very profitable, which leaves us with an equation that will be with us for a long time: Greed plus money plus lobbying plus Congress equals a massacre of children.
Jon Oplinger
Farmington
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