In your Editorial Board sound off last week you asked the question, “What will it take for people to see that we need to protect each other more than ever?” My question for you is this: What will it take for you to realize that tightening gun restrictions on law-abiding citizens will not solve this country’s culture of violence?

The gun legislation that was addressed in the article would have expanded background checks to include gun shows and online sales. Realistically, these measures probably would not have affected the tragedy at Newtown if one considers the wide range of firearms that were legally purchased and available to the assailant.

What we must realize as a nation is that we will never be able to eliminate every means of hurting others. Those wishing to harm others will always find a way to do so – a bomb, a toxin, or numerous other alternatives – and infringing upon Constitutional rights in an attempt to control the endless possibilities is simply foolish.

Just as the members of the Editorial Board value their right to free speech, I value my right to bear arms. What if the attack in Newtown had been perpetrated with a handgun? Would legislators have called for a ban on handguns? Where does it end?

The real conversation we need to be having is why young people in today’s society are turning to violence to solve their perceived personal problems. We need to consider more carefully what values we are unintentionally instilling in our children when we continually underscore masculinity and superiority with violence. We have created a culture of violence that our children are growing up in, and we need to begin resolving this deeper issue before we will see a reprieve in gun violence.

-Kristin Slaght, senior, history major

=