I am still shaking my head in disbelief after reading Paul Hackley's Public Forum letter that called for a requirement for "every citizen to own a gun," and to "let the citizens police themselves."
I wonder whether Mr. Hackley has noticed that Salt Lake City is no longer the Wild West. In any case, this is a terrible idea.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found, when comparing OECD countries around the world, that "firearm availability is positively correlated with firearm homicide and usually overall homicide."
Scientific American reported extensive research concluding that having "a gun in the home [is] associated with a nearly threefold increase in the odds that someone would be killed at home by a family member or intimate acquaintance." Furthermore, "guns do not inhibit crime and violence." Guns increase suicide, homicide, crime, and violence -- notwithstanding erroneous beliefs to the contrary.
Mr. Hackley also claims that many Americans would refuse to surrender their guns if legislation mandated this. Perhaps. But what is it about American criminals that makes them so exceptional?
When gun ownership restrictions have been enacted in other countries, the citizens complied. Why couldn't we do the same for ourselves and our children?
Ken Roach, Salt Lake City
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