Politicians more interested in being re-elected

The Obama Administration has been trying to use the recent mass killings to pass legislation that will make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to obtain guns to protect themselves from rape, burglars and other criminals until the police can arrive, pretending that reducing the number of guns in a community will reduce crime (which it never has).

The Obama Administration ignores what reduced the murder and crime rates in New York City - sending everybody found to be carrying a gun in public without a legal permit to do so to jail for months. It also ignores the findings of the American Academy of Pediatrics - violent movies, TV and video games cause some adolescents to become numb to suffering around them, and when poverty, abuse and mental illness are added, violence frequently occurs. The killers in Tucson, Ariz., Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., all had mental illness and reportedly played violent video games.

Perhaps forcing Hollywood to stop selling these products might reduce the number of youth turning violent and committing violent crimes, but we will probably never know because the actors and producers of these products contribute a lot of money to the campaigns of President Obama and his colleagues every year. There will continue to be mass killings in places where guns are banned until we can elect politicians who are more interested in protecting the public than they are in being re-elected.

J. Fred Doornbos

Iowa City