Headline misstates case on gun violence

I understand the need to create an attention-grabbing headline to get readers to read your articles, but I would suggest that the Daily Herald crossed the line with the “1 Permit, 200 Guns?” headline.

Obviously your goal was to create a “shocking” headline which would attract your anti-gun readers; but anybody that actually read the article would walk away with the exact opposite reaction. The truth is that the vast majority of legal gun owners never hurt a soul, whether they own one gun or 200.

The real tragedy is that this kind of hysterical reporting deflects the focus from the real question that should be answered. How is it that one community can have a loaded gun behind every back door without one act of gun violence in 60 years (my families’ farm community) and other communities (Chicago) have kids killing each other with guns every day?

How is it that 600,000 heavily armed hunters enter the dark woods every deer season in Wisconsin (including me for decades) and not one is hurt or killed because of gun violence 99 percent of the time? More hunters are killed falling out of tree stands than by gun violence.

The answer is the decline of our families and culture, not guns. In 1960 only 5 percent of kids were raised without a father. Today 40 percent of our kids are raised without a father. In the African-American community, which has the highest gun violence, 73 percent of kids are raised without a father.

Unfortunately, our politically correct culture has paralyzed us because it doesn’t allow us to tell the truth about gun violence. It is caused by the decline of the family and fatherless kids that join gangs as a substitute for having a father.

Randy Rossi

Grayslake