Editor’s note: In the June 2 Courier, we ran ”What’s Your Take On ... Gun violence in America” by Woodland Park Mary Crade. Below are some responses to what she wrote.

Take 1 Jay Brown, Divide

I am a retired Army veteran of 25 years, now 69 years old. I have been around guns since I was introduced to them by my grandfather at the age of 10. I own several guns for various reasons; military history, self-defense, hunting and marksmanship practice to list a few. And I am a lifetime member of the NRA and an NRA-certified Range Safety Officer.

All of that said, I have never, ever committed a mass shooting or a criminal assault with any of my firearms. The same can be said for millions of firearms owners in America. We all maintain our personal firearms for the same reason, to counter the threat that Ms. Crade speaks of — persons who commit acts of violence using firearms. To put it simply, law abiding citizens who own firearms are not the threat and urging legislation that seeks to limit or infringe the second amendment rights of those people is far from “common sense”. It is a ridiculous waste of time and tax dollars.

To address her examples of “common sense measures”:

1. Universal Background Checks. Criminals obtain firearms via avenues where background checks are not done, required or not. Criminals steal, borrow, buy or are gifted firearms by other criminals. It is already illegal to knowingly transfer a firearm to a person who is legally restricted from owning a firearm. The biggest problem is people who do this are not punished.

2. Red flag laws. These laws are intended to protect people from others who would do them, or themselves harm by removing firearms from their possession. However, the supposed threat is then left alone and unmonitored in a house filled with common, everyday items, that can be readily used to commit violent assault.

3. Gun show loophole. Does not exist in Colorado. All transfers must include a background check. (See No. 1)

4. Banning ghost guns. Socalled “ghost guns” are built from kits using some parts that must be completed using tools. Criminals do not take the time and effort to do this as there are much easier venues for them to acquire firearms. (See No. 1.) As to the statement that ghost guns cannot be traced, no firearm used in a crime will lead to a criminal. It might lead to a former owner who reported the gun stolen (See No. 1, again)

There is nothing “common sense” about any of these proposals as they all shoot at the wrong target. Enforce laws and enact legislation that is targeted at those who would commit the crimes you are trying to prevent, not at all law-abiding citizens who do not commit such crimes.

I will also say that law abiding firearms owners agree there needs to be an end put to senseless acts of violence in this country. We just disagree on the method to do so. Ms. Crade and others, like Moms Demand Action, the organization she alludes to, want to ban certain firearms that have been used in mass shootings even though the firearm most used in shootings is a handgun. Even though the characteristics of the firearms they want to ban are based not on lethality, frequency of use in such crimes, or caliber, but on cosmetics. Even though the fact that banning such firearms between 1984 and 1994 “had no discernable effect” on mass shootings.

I propose if you want to stop criminals from committing violent crimes, amend current laws to maximize sentences if found guilty of committing such crimes with guns and make them do the entire sentence, no time off for good behavior, no early release. After release, check felons to make sure they are not in possession of firearms. If a person is then found to be in possession of a firearm, send them back to prison for life, no parole. They have clearly demonstrated a total disregard for the law and for the rights of others.

If a person is found guilty of committing a crime with a firearm where someone is killed, regardless of who is killed, who owned the firearm or who pulled the trigger, send them to prison with the right to submit one appeal. If the appeal fails or is not submitted, on the anniversary of the commission of the crime they will be put to death. That is shooting at the right target.

As for those situations where there is domestic abuse, stop wasting time with protective orders that are useless. If the person is a threat to another human being, adjudicate them as such and remove them from society. Further than that, see the paragraph above. As for the person who is a suicide risk or someone who has made threats to commit a violent crime with a gun, take those reports seriously and act on them by removing the person to a place where they can receive help, not just remove the firearms, pat yourself on the back and call it a day.

It is time to stop playing games and passing feel-good legislation that does nothing but make lawmakers appear to be “doing something.”

Take 2 Michael Theimer, Colorado Springs

It’s about violence not guns. I get so tired of reading articles/ letters about needing more gun control. Grow up. Evil exists in this world and always will. There is no such thing as a utopia nor will there ever be. You cannot legislate morals.

Its interesting that anti-gunners point to the confiscation of all guns from civilian populations in England and Australia, but ignore their skyrocketing crime and violence after their governments confiscated guns from their law-abiding citizens. If you want to live in a city with strict gun control laws, go move to Chicago, D.C., New York, etc. Do you know what is going on in those cities?

The latest annual estimates are 36,000 gun related deaths in the U.S., but 23,000 are suicides with firearms. That leaves 13,000 homicides using guns. We need to address suicides and mental health in our country. We need to focus on violence and its causes, not more gun laws.

Mary Crade points out that there are over 400,000,000 guns in the U.S. If guns and gun owners were the problem, you would see much more “gun violence.” Guns and law-abiding gun owners are not the problem. No one points to the average 90,000 people who die from malpractice in hospitals and hospitals are extremely regulated. If regulation worked, then why are so many still dying of malpractice in hospitals.

There is not “overwhelming support” for more gun control. If that were true, why have over eight million people bought their first gun in the last two years? Defunding police has driven crime rates higher than any other time in those cities’ history. People must defend themselves because the police will not be there in time to stop crime or deaths. Do you watch the evening news? The police arrive after people are killed.

How many dead bodies are you willing to accept waiting for the police to arrive that you have defunded? You are responsible for protecting yourself and your family. The Supreme Court has already stated that the police are not responsible to protect you from being killed by a psychopathic killer. The police cannot be everywhere all the time protecting just you.

Criminals are emboldened by gun control and lax, almost nonexistent prosecution of current gun laws. Psychopaths deliberately target churches, schools and businesses with “No Guns Allowed” signs because they know that they will not be shot by an armed citizen. Ask any criminal. “No Guns Allowed” signs are “victim zones.” A sign or gun control law doesn’t protect you from psychopaths that ignore laws.

If guns kill people, then pencils cause misspelling, spoons make people fat and cars make people drive drunk. That’s the premise of gun-control logic.

The reason that the Founders of our great country added the

Bill of Rights was to make it clear that these are inalienable rights and not privileges granted by the government. The Bill of Rights was written to protect the people from the government.

Not only does the Second Amendment protect a citizen’s right to bear arms for personal protection of themselves and their family, but also to protect themselves from a potential tyrannical government. Remember our Founding Fathers had just won our independence from the tyrannical King of England.

Those looking to gain power and control over a nation fear armed citizens. Criminals and dictators love unarmed victims!