More gun laws needed to prevent tragic deaths

An Aug. 5 letter (“Time for mourning, not advancing agenda,” Jesse Monk) asked whether now is the right time to discuss restrictions on firearms so soon after the tragic shootings in Aurora, Colo. Yes, it is.

Unfortunately, the shooting in the theater was only one of many examples of gun violence in our country. Since then, an 8-year-old boy, who should have started third grade in Dubuque this month, was killed when a gun discharged while three juveniles were handling it. On Aug. 5, a former member of the U.S. military shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis.

Since the 1999 tragedy at Columbine, there have been more than 100 shootings at U.S. schools and college campuses. Since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in 1968, more than a million Americans have been killed with firearms.

Of course, we mourn the loss of those whose lives were lost prematurely to gun violence and our hearts go out to the families and loved ones they left behind. But the greatest honor we can pay them is to make sure their deaths were not in vain. We should immediately reduce the availability of guns and ammunition used to cause such grief. Sensible gun laws work, as evidenced in other populous, high-income countries.

Alice Dahle

Cedar Rapids