Letter to the Editor of the New London Day.


This is in response to the letter titled “Concealed firearms will not stop the violence,” published Feb. 25. Although I applaud the writer for taking an interest in these tragic events and advocating a solution of prevention, she should have researched the facts before coming to her misguided conclusions. If she had, she would have known there are gun laws in place that should have prevented the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois shooters from legally obtaining firearms.
Had a thorough background check been implemented, as is the law, it would have uncovered that both men suffered from mental illness and should have been denied the right of purchase. Reasons they were not are complicated, citing certain states' private health records not being included in the federal database. You can implement 10 or 1,000 more gun laws, but people who wish to use guns for criminal acts don't care about laws. They're going to disregard them.

The answer is not to pass more laws, but enforce existing ones. And the answer is not to deny law-abiding citizens their right to personal protection against those who wish to do them bodily harm. Yet this is what the letter writer proposes: denying law-abiding citizens the right to protect themselves. That is the purpose of a concealed-weapons permit. How many lives would have been saved had any students or faculty been allowed to take advantage of this privilege and right?

We read about home, mall and parking lot abductions almost weekly. These heinous acts, often against young women, almost always end tragically, with sexual abuse and murder. How many could be prevented, and how many depraved individuals could be stopped, if women exercise their constitutional right to legally carry a concealed firearm? Mace? Taser? Maybe. A .40 caliber, definitely.

Tom Gresh
North Stonington