Owning guns OK; concealing them isn’t

Steve Quick’s letter (“Preserve the right to defend ourselves,” July 31) is replete with false assumptions. The vast majority of Americans don’t want to “live in a world where people carry firearms.” Only 30 percent of people now have a gun in the house, and that overstates the real figure because it includes guns people have inherited and never use. Only a small fraction of gun owners have any desire to carry a gun in public.

The jury in the George Zimmerman case did not decide who initiated the confrontation, as Mr. Quick claims; they couldn’t know beyond a reasonable doubt what happened, so they acquitted. What is clear is that, if Zimmerman didn’t have a gun, he would not have been emboldened to take the law into his own hands and Trayvon Martin would not be dead. That’s why “concealed carry” is a bad idea.

If you want to have a gun in your home for protection or for hunting, that’s your right. I just hope you keep it secured, because it’s much more likely to be used on someone in your home than on an intruder.

Matt Flamm

Palatine