Letter: More discussion of crime in Cedar Rapids

In her June 29 letter ('Leave race out of gun discussion), Gail Coleman grossly distorted my June 20 letter ('Federal gun violence study is not needed”) which merely agreed with a May 6 letter by Evan Vulich ('Gun violence not a citywide issue”). We had both said that Cedar Rapids' crime problems are due partly to parents not supervising their kids and failing to teach values.

Coleman wrote that I ' ... devolved into blaming and race baiting,” making reference to 'those folks,” 'that neighborhood,” 'sin,” etc. She improperly used quotation marks around her derogatory remarks to imply that I made them. I didn't say any of those things.

She claimed that I said '‘those people' in ‘those' neighborhoods should not have guns like ‘us' folks.” I didn't say anything even remotely akin to that. I'm a firm believer that Second Amendment rights belong to all non-felon American citizens. My letter was about neither guns, nor race.

Here is exactly what I said: 'It's common knowledge that many of the kids in question are raised by unwed mothers. The absentee fathers give neither moral nor financial support. Money that should be spent on nourishment, clothing, habitat and education for the children is instead spent on cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and tattoos.”

This observation, along with universal Second Amendment rights, applies to people of all colors. It is not racist.

Dean Varner

Cedar Rapids