Readers React: Guns make the powerless feel powerful

To the editor: Unfortunately our society suffers from a large group of people who feel that they have no influence over their environments: They feel powerless. They take up firearms as a way to feel significant, that they have power. ( “Understanding gun violence,” Editorial, March 30)

Violence is our solution to all problems. We’re going to see this continually demonstrated until the demographics of our society change sufficiently that the 18th century model of exerting oneself dissipates or the goals and focus of society alter away from the power model.

We may begin to see that change in another generation.

Frank Davis, Mesa, Ariz.

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To the editor: I sense the answer has everything to do with what we require of men and young men: to never show fear, to be vulnerable or be treated with disrespect, to protect at all costs.

Guns have everything to do with power and the appearance of power, and for many, owning guns is tied to their very identities. They can’t separate this from the toll that owning guns and gun proliferation takes on society.

For reasonable restraints and regulations to succeed, we need to connect with gun owners about what matters to them; we need to establish grounds for respectful dialogue and listen to them and motivate them to listen to us.

April Neilson, San Francisco

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To the editor: People in the United States and in other countries are outraged and upset about the senseless terrorist violence committed by putatively misguided, brainwashed and insane religious and political extremists. And rightly so.

Yet, contrast this to gun violence in the U.S. According to your editorial, 196,000 people in the U.S. have died from gunshots from 2009 to 2014. That averages to about 39,000 people killed by the use of guns each year in this country. It’s like the population of a small city wiped out every year. But where is the outrage over this?

Paranoia is rampant and the population is held under the thumb of the National Rifle Assn. And it’s not the rank-and-file NRA members who are the problem but the gun manufacturers that buy off the politicians.

I would imagine that the Founding Fathers would be dumbfounded, and I suspect they would write a somewhat different amendment today.

David Keranen, Bakersfield

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