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Letter: Let people have guns, but prohibit them from touching them

FILE- In this April 25, 2014, file photo, attendees look over a pistol display at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Indianapolis. Hearing aid maker Starkey Hearing Technologies is joining other companies that have cut ties with the National Rifle Association after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018. Over a dozen companies including Metlife, Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Best Western, Wyndham, United Airlines, and Delta, which have ended NRA partnerships since the shooting. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)

Finally, I get it. For decades, every time tighter gun controls were proposed, the NRA and other gun huggers would trot out the mantra ”Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” I dismissed the credo as so much propaganda until my epiphany yesterday.

The NRA is absolutely correct. Guns don’t kill people. Guns don’t pull their own triggers. They innocently rest wherever they are placed.

People with malicious, even murderous intent force guns to commit atrocities they never would if left on their own. Guns become unwitting accomplices to evil. One might say they are victimized by the humans using them to shoot people.

No, guns are not the problem. Even a million more assault rifles would not cause a problem. Let Remington manufacture all the firearms it wants. But don’t let people — the true murderers of other people — anywhere near guns. It’s OK for people to own all the assault rifles they want. They just can’t touch them or get within 20 yards of them.

All this time the NRA has been right. Guns don’t kill people. They shouldn’t be outlawed. Outlaw people.

Julene E. Fisher, West Valley City