Guns are only a tool; we should be looking at our mental-health system

Letter to the Editor,

These statements represent only my views on the subject of guns and of the upcoming battle that seems to be coming to restrict them.

First of all, it is not a gun problem. A gun is simply a tool that is being used to cause harm to people. Knives, clubs and even rocks can be used as effective tools.

The main problem, I think, lies with society and the failure of the mental-health system in this country. Mental health has suffered throughout its lifetime with staffing and funding problems and just seems to not get the attention it needs.

The highest crime rates in the U.S. are in areas that have some of the most stringent gun laws in the nation, for example, Chicago. This tells me more laws will not be effective as far as guns are concerned.

If someone commits a crime with a firearm, the penalties should be severe! The recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, I think, is being used as a path to initiate more laws that will not work concerning our Second Amendment rights.

Let us not continue down the path once again that did not work in the past and will not work in the future.

The culture we have is not of guns. It is the culture of being free, and I think we want to keep it that way now and into the future.

— Ron Downey

Troy