Don't blame guns for gun violence

I'm in my 70s, and I have been around guns all of my life. I believe that blaming the gun for gun violence is like blaming the car for car accidents. It's not the type of gun or the number of guns that's the problem but the intent of the person holding the gun. Angry people with bad intentions are the problem.

It's apparent to me that non gun owners are not familiar with the gun laws in our state. Here in Illinois, gun owners have been required to possess a FOID card since 1969. After you fill out the application the State police run a background check on you. In order to get a concealed carry permit, you must take a course and upon completion get fingerprinted.

Young hunters must pass a hunter safety course in order to get a hunting license. Most old hunters have taken the course alongside their sons and daughters .As far as the nonsense that our Founding Fathers didn't envision modern firearms when they wrote the Second Amendment, I'm sure that they didn't envision the internet and social media when they wrote the First Amendment.

Just about every day in this newspaper I read about someone being charged with a gun violation of some sort or another. I never read about a conviction. I would like to read if they were found guilty or not and if found guilty, what their sentence was. This would go a long way to prove or disprove the idea that current gun laws are being enforced.

John Malec

Bensenville