Mass shootings: ‘The elephant in the room’

Re: “Texas committee OKs invoice to boost age to purchase AR-15-style rifles” [May 9, Nation & World]:

It’s a small, small step, nevertheless it’s a begin. Sadly, it’s not sufficient. Some (however fortunately, not all) GOP legislators proceed to give attention to psychological sickness as the reason for mass shootings and refuse to deal with the elephant within the room — the weapons.

It’s all the time the identical excuse: Search for any rationale that triggered a gunman to kill, however ignore the gun that was in his hand. The assault-weapons disaster can’t be solved with out decreasing entry to assault weapons. Interval. Psychological sickness, drug use, violent video video games, and so on., are drained excuses that ignore one easy reality: Place an assault rifle in somebody’s hand and also you’ve instantly accelerated his incentive to make use of it.

Teresa Mosteller, Seattle