The Norman Transcript

Opinion

Discussion

December 30, 2012

Problem bigger than gun control issue

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript: 

I began a previous letter to the editor a few years ago by saying that I abhor violence as much as anyone, and it is just as true for me today.  And by the way, I don’t own a gun.  All of the tragic massacres described in previous recent letters to the editor, no matter by what means: guns, knives, bombs, etc., are heinous and despicable.  As a partial solution, I submit that a ban on assault weapons is a reasonable action in helping to curb such horrible acts.  However, people such as Bob Franken and Piers Morgan (whose hot headed, insipid behavior in his CNN forum recently was an embarrassment to watch) are myopic in their thinking if they believe that gun control is the only answer to this problem.  Franken’s sloughing of the saying “guns don’t kill people; people kill people” is no more insipid to me than my saying, “I am overweight because I have a spoon”.

I side with recent well thought out, inclusive and introspective letters by Cindy Merrick, Mark McCurley and Nancy Smart for indicating that these terrible tragedies are due to problems far more encompassing than gun control.  I strongly include myself with them in inferring that issues such as glorification of violence, family disintegration and troubled, deranged minds are just as much (if not more) to blame or to be the causes, not just the symptoms, of these tragic acts.  Sadly, I don’t have the viable, precise answers to these problems.  But the lawmakers and other professionals who do deal with these problems would do well to remember this: if one diabolical instrument is limited or removed (guns) when considering these acts,  the troubled mind will find another.  It is this troubled mind that society absolutely must address, not just gun control.

FRED BENENATI

Norman

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