America needs to wake up to gun problem

To the editor:

I read about yet another shooting here in the land of Minnesota “nice” – at a Catholic Church in Minneapolis.

How long will it take for the USA to wake up from their stupor of stupidity and realize there is no way to have free access to guns and ammunition without the on-going escalation of senseless killing and violence. The humanity is not universally “nice” and we can’t discern the pathological from the sane. Nor can we predict when the seemingly sane person will cross the boundary and go on a rampage. Yet, we continue to delude ourselves that it is just a mental health issue and that’s true. The big BUT, there’s no 100% test that will prevent gun ownership from the deranged and criminal. My guess is that that only 10% of these people are prevented or discouraged from gun ownership.

This is a CLEAR case of the few spoiling it for the many. I would argue that the “few” is an ever growing larger group than we imagine.

The first step is to limit access to ammunition and treat it as a prescription drug using IDs using a nationwide database that can warn ATF when someone buys excessive amounts of ammunition. Then we need to stop selling guns to ordinary people. Next, we need a buy back program. We should outlaw gun shows and advertising. Finally, gun ownership, should be outlawed.

Surely, the 2nd amendment was not intended to create unrestricted killing of the innocent. The very nature of an amendment is an admission that the original constitution was flawed. The amendments don’t result in a perfect set of laws either. There is nothing sacred about either the constitution or the or any amendment. So, let’s clarify the 2nd amendment. You can be sure that the founders would have been more precise with their language if they had a crystal ball into the year 1900 and beyond with the exponential growth of the population and technology.

Ted Schaefer