Letter: A gun won't make you good Samaritan

Only in gun-worshipping America would a man using his gun be called a good Samaritan as suggested by the local police chief in the latest mass shooting incident in a Greenwood, Indiana, shopping mall.

A hero he might be called, though he broke the mall's policy against weapons.

But it is a travesty and distortion of the Biblical story to call this shooting intervention an image of the good Samaritan who did not strike, mock or ignore his enemy lying in the ditch on the road to Jericho, but instead brought a healing hand to him and to the relations between two antagonistic peoples, Jews and Samaritans.

There is no healing in a gun. Perish the thought that people will think they can now buy a gun and become a good Samaritan. No way. Indeed, a good Samaritan is the one who would bring aid to the wounded mass murderer.

Martin Deppe

Chicago