  Letters to the Editor  September 18, 2012  Letters to the
Editor: September 18, 2012  Perspective needed on guns  After
hearing the progressive take on the Colorado and Wisconsin
shootings, I thought some perspective was needed concerning
guns.  Our society could do itself a favor by not viewing
firearms as the reason for violence. As if the briefest glimpse
of a rifle makes one violent, and that 99 percent of violence,
mugging, wife beating, child and elder abuse, etc., would vanish
seconds after the last gun left the streets.  Guns shouldn’t be
seen as why we’re violent, but just another way we express that
tendency. Which would change a lot of the debate over guns,
because what can’t you hurt someone with? And with a fair amount
of rapidity, too. I say this because of the argument that guns
can wound and kill pretty quickly. This is what I call “playing
the numbers game”: judging the awfulness of something by how
many it can harm at a crack.  How is one life lost to a knife
less tragic than 12 from an au