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Comments on the recent editorial “Two Shootings, Two Different Directions”: One thing not emphasized therein: the U.S. shooting killed two and wounded nine, while the Australian shooting killed 15 and wounded 27. I prefer the USA numbers. One reason for the disparity may be that the Australian killers were essentially largely unimpeded for many minutes, while I think the U.S. killer probably realized someone would stop him soon and chose to quit.
The BDN would like the U.S. to do something. It gives no concrete suggestions for action. Generally speaking, when action is taken just to do something, without a logical plan, the result is worse than the original problem.
The BDN seems to me to suggest that the time has come to abolish the 2nd Amendment. I strongly disagree; without it our freedoms would diminish precipitously.
If we banned the printing of the names of mass killers, that would encroach on the 1st Amendment, but it would probably save more lives than another gun ban, since it would deny mass murderers the publicity and sometimes adulation they crave. The media could voluntarily choose to keep names of mass murderers confidential, but most don’t.
Lawrence E. Merrill
Orrington
