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Editor, News-Register:
As a regular reader of your newspaper, I am especially fond of what your Readers Say. I believe it is a valuable forum for public opinion. Your regular columnists Richard Hord and David Delk are two of my favorites.
But on Aug. 8th, the letter from Paul Dorsey of Bluefield, W.Va., really hit the mark. It reiterates the old axiom that "Guns don't kill people … People kill people." Readers who know me also know that I am a non-violent gun owner who built a machine gun which won first place in our high school's science fair. My, how times have changed!
I accept Mr. Dorsey's challenge to solve this dilemma by offering the following:
(1) A mandatory psychological screening before high school graduation would help identify any "loose screws" before they could cause any damage. I believe this would be more useful than passing the standardized tests (which, by the way, really only test the teachers' skills).
(2) An elective course in gun safety, akin to driver's education, would certainly attract anyone with an interest in guns.
(3) Proof of the foregoing before being allowed to purchase any gun. Gun Shows" are a common source of rogue weapons, so they might be a good place to invoke that proof.
Mandatory background checks only work if a person has a background to check. Quite often, the decision to kill is spontaneous or emotionally driven, rendering background checks useless.
And finally, criminals are not being ignored, but simply assigned a low priority by lawyers who favor higher-paying clientele.
David Visnic
Wheeling