Letters to the Editor

Reasons for poverty, violence not simple

Regarding Jacci Perry's Dec. 11 letter on the "knee-jerk" reaction to a ban on weapons: Comparing people who say guns are the problem in mass shootings to spoons being the problem of over-eaters needs more reflection. I agree: Shootings are not the gun's fault. Most experts believe, however, that troubled people's need for diagnosis and treatment would lessen violent crime, just as a higher percentage of the population being solidly middle class.

To say that the reason the U.S. hasn't been invaded is because we have pistols and long guns is naïve. Guns have no power over ICBMs and nuclear weapons, and no power over ISIS attacks in the U.S. either.

And the highest crime rates are in Democratic cities where lots of minorities live? Most minorities are poorer than us white fat cats because they are discriminated against, have less education, don't speak English as well, and seek crime because they don't have a better way to earn a living. Our country, the "land of the free," is not free for everyone. Poor kids have to work harder to get educated while many more affluent ones have parents to help out. That's why it is so amazing when a poor kid (black, white or brown) figures out a way to afford college.

I'm also a gun owner, and yet I don't have a solution to eliminating all guns in the U.S. We don't want only the criminals to be armed, but we certainly need a more educated population, a fairer justice system and more availability to psychiatry and diagnosis. These things would lessen the crime in those danged Democratic cities filled with danged minorities, not more guns for every yahoo.

Juli Odum

Fayetteville

Commentary on 12/16/2017

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