Problems can be solved without guns

To the editor:

On the Nation/World page in the Dec. 31 Gazette, there are items about gun deaths. One was about a Florida pastor who shot and severely wounded an employee after that employee

pulled a gun after learning he had been laid off. Below was an item that a 2-year-old child pulled a gun from his mother's purse and killed his mother. What was she doing in a Wal-Mart store with a loaded weapon, without any safety on, apparently, and putting it where her baby could get to it? Then the big story is about the number of officers killed by firearms is up by 56 percent. This is insanity.

We're getting to the point no matter where we are or what we're doing, we're in danger of being shot by someone carrying a loaded weapon. This is shameful and ludicrous. It's time for people to start thinking about amending the Constitution, so that we can have some guarantee of going into a church, school or store without being shot. Thanks to the propaganda of the National Rifle Association we've arrived at a crossroads in our country, where no one can feel safe just walking down the street. When did killing someone get so easy? Whatever happened to having a conscience? Didn't the murders at Columbine, Arvada, Santa Barbara or Newtown mean anything? Time to change this whole scary notion that every issue has to be solved by killing someone else.

Bobbie Paxton

Iowa City