Easy access to guns a public safety issue
Aug. 30, 2011in MCAHV News
Portland Press Herald
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/easy-access-to-guns-a-public-safety-issue_2011-08-30.html
Letters to the editor, Aug. 30, 2011
Easy access to guns a public safety issue
Let's be clear and factual. No one has the absolute right to own or carry a gun. While NRA extremists would lead us to believe that the Second Amendment gives us that right, gun ownership and use is regulated, as it should be.
The real debate is how strictly guns should be regulated to protect us from criminals and those who are adjudicated to be mentally ill, for example.
The recent open-carry event at Back Cove in Portland highlights the extreme agenda to normalize Wild-West, let's-take-the-law-into-our-own-hands, everyone-should-be-packing behavior.
We already know that easy access to guns is dangerous, and wonder why extremists keep trying to convince us that more guns are good for us. We know from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that increasing the number of guns conversely increases the number of deaths by gun through accidental discharge, suicide or homicide.
The NRA argues that more gun regulation won't stop criminals. No law stops everyone from doing what they shouldn't be doing – how many people do you see speeding – but that shouldn't stop us from having strong gun laws that help protect innocent people such as domestic violence victims.
Easy access is a problem. Maine provides criminals with a steady supply of guns, thanks to a loophole that allows the purchase of a gun without a background check (just ask the Acton man who sold hundreds of guns to criminals from away). Drugs are brought to Maine and guns leave, fueling the criminal trade in states like Massachusetts, which does have strong laws that work.
Almost 90 percent of Mainers want to close the so-called gun show loophole.
It should be more difficult for criminals to obtain guns in Maine. So why wouldn't the NRA want to support that?
Karen A D'Andrea
Executive Director, Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence
Portland