Problem with guns getting into the wrong hands

The stock market crash of 1929 may have had but one redeeming factor. The majority of American households were suddenly financially strained to just have the basic necessities of life like food, clothing and shelter. Gun ownership was out of the question, and it would be Prohibition-era gangsters and their blazing machine guns that would dominate the news of the day alongside John Dillinger, a notorious bank robber. Even Dillinger once lamented that robbing banks for the little money they had was a risky business.

A better postwar economy gradually revived an interest in personal gun ownership and a good many American households now have them on hand and approved citizens can carry them concealed. The flip side is that background checks of people that buy guns now include far too many people who are mentally unstable and go unnoticed.

All the deadly mass shooting we are having by such individuals should wake us all up, including the gun lobby that we do have a problem with guns getting into the wrong hands.

Our political leaders are being called on to review and revise our guns laws and that should include the gun lobby. It might just be that we could solve the problem by levying a hefty yearly tax on personal gun ownership to make gun ownership unattractive and lengthy jail time for underground dealers of illegal guns.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale