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Letter: Everyone must be held responsible. Except gun owners.

(Rick Bowmer | The Associated Press) In this Nov. 10, 2018 file photo, an image of University of Utah student and track athlete Lauren McCluskey, who was fatally shot on campus is projected on the video board before the start of an NCAA college football game between Oregon and Utah Saturday in Salt Lake City. An investigation into missed warning signs before the death of a University of Utah student shot by a man she briefly dated shows campus police are overtaxed and need more training in handling domestic violence cases, authorities said Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. The probe also found that friends of student Lauren McCluskey had reported to residence-hall officials that her then-boyfriend Melvin Rowland was controlling and wanted to get her a gun nearly a month before her death.

It was inevitable. A reasonable gun bill was proposed, Lauren's law, and the gun lobby pulled out its tired old lie about the inconvenience it would cause to law-abiding gun owners. Their premise is severely flawed.

If all gun owners were law-abiding, then we wouldn't read every day about murders and mass shootings. In fact the gun lobby opposes anything that would make gun owners responsible for their actions or the actions of a person they foolishly loaned their gun to.

I know law-abiding gun owners, and not one of them would irresponsibly loan their gun to someone who couldn't get their own gun legally. If I loan my car to a drunk or an unlicensed driver who then injures or kills someone, I will be and should be held responsible. Everyone must be responsible for their own decisions, except, according to the gun lobby, gun owners.

Please don't respond with that other, equally tired lie, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." A gun in the wrong hands kills people. Just read the newspaper or watch the news for even one day and keep count.

What is also disturbing is that the Legislature is equally complicit, either because they lack courage, accept money from the gun lobby, or both. Blood is on their hands.

Connie W. Reed, Salt Lake City

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