As we once again await yet another gun control bill to come roaring down the pike, one must ask is this really about the safety and well-being of the citizens, or just another bold step toward totalitarian rule?

I come from a time and place (small town America of the 1950s) where a 16-year-old could walk in to any sporting goods store and buy his catcher’s mitt and a shotgun from the same clerk. Even the general store down the road would have a few shotguns and rifles for sale.

As we roamed the woods and hillsides on a pleasant autumn day there were always a few cars in the high school parking lot with shotguns lying across the back seat or a group of 12- to 15-year-olds walking down the road with their shotguns or 22 cal. rifles. Yet, we didn’t shoot each other. Nobody had ever heard of a mass shooting. It was a different time, a polite society, there was a sense of right and wrong.

Today we have thousands upon thousands of gun laws, rules and regulations and new controls being proposed on a regular basis, yet we have an ever-increasing rate of gun crime and violence. According to the FBI uniform crime reports, the safest states all have in common very few gun laws, yet California with the most extreme gun laws in the nation has the highest gun murder rate.

It doesn’t take an IQ more than a few points above a carrot to realize that guns are not the problem. Would it not make more sense do the hard work of ferreting out and addressing the real problems with society or is this just another step toward controlling the people?

Richard S. Cahalan

South Hadley