Change behaviors, not laws

As I read through my Daily Herald, observing the fuss over making Illinois' FOID card more difficult to obtain, this effort strikes me as being bullheaded. My observations have led me to firmly believe that gun control is not the way to control gun violence.

Why legislation became necessary, why we, the people, decided to ignore social pressures which precipitated this violence and worship our leaders, praying to them to find answers, is beyond my ability to comprehend. Perhaps lawmakers felt they were doing "the right thing," and once on that path, were loath to leave it, heaping caveat upon caveat, passing law after law, forcing those obliged to enforce those laws to add more, and then more, responsibilities to their daily routine, while their budgets and ranks were dwindling.

From the beginning, gun control has availed us nothing, nor will it. Rather than pursuing gun control, we should pursue self-control.

At what time did it become "de rigueur" to resolve personal conflict with firearms? This occurs more frequently now than ever before, as pressure for "gun control" becomes more prevalent. I've been around for more than eight decades, and there have been as many guns in people's hands over those decades as there are today. Yet, only in the past several decades has gun violence reared its ugly head. Why blame the gun for how it's used?

Lack of purpose in their lives has left many lost and wandering. Those with purpose have come to believe themselves more important, less responsible to be sociable, to embrace societies mores. Scofflaws abound and any doubter need merely to observe drivers who consider traffic laws something whose necessity in required to pass a driving test. Where's a cop when you need one? Busy elsewhere, trying vainly to uphold the laws, which continually increase in scope and number while protesters cry "defund the police." More "gun control" laws are not the answer.

Jim Ledbetter Sr.

North Aurora