In a letter to the editor in today’s Keene (NH) Sentinel, Mr. Coey’s reckons that more guns equals more disablement, death and destruction.
The question of gun control is whether more guns make society safer or not.
Many “self-protection” advocates argue that it does, while others take the opposing view. I did some low intensity research, and found that the United States has the highest rate of gun ownership among the industrialized nations, with 40 percent of households possessing a firearm.
Sixty-six percent of murders are committed with a gun, and the U.S. leads the industrialized world in the number of murders committed. If these figures are reliable, then, the notion that the more guns available make our society safer is fallacious.
I think it is a valid exercise of government to protect us from ourselves.
If the larger community did not moderate the individual, social problems would abound with human fallibility given free rein. It is in all our best interest for society to provide an environment that is stable and regulated so that each of us may achieve our potential unhindered by our human tendency toward vice.
Jack Coey