Letters: Oct. 12, 2017

Gun statistics

Those who oppose any gun regulation say that those who favor gun control laws are trying to divide the country. Let’s get away from politics and look at statistics. The U.S. has approximately four percent of the world’s population but more than 40 percent of guns in civilian hands. The U.S. has almost 30 homicides by firearms per million people, four times more than any other developed country.

States with a higher percentage of households with guns have a higher number of gun deaths. Duh. States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths. Not surprising.

What may be surprising is that firearm homicides per capita have dropped since the 1980s. So why should we consider gun control laws? Did you know that most gun deaths are suicides? In fact, suicides by gun have almost doubled since 2000, and states with the most suicides have the highest rates of gun ownership. Another point that is not well-publicized is that police are more likely to be killed by guns in states with higher rates of gun ownership.

Discussion regarding gun control spikes when there are tragic mass killings by guns.

However, it is never clear after a mass shooting whether any specific gun control laws would have prevented that particular tragedy. But we should all consider other impacts of high gun ownership rates such as increased gun suicides and homicides.

Charlotte Omoto,

Palouse

Steptoe improvements

Steptoe would like to thank the following county employees for their hard work to provide improvements in our small town. Jack Pierce does a great service by providing signage throughout the town and in particular the signs at the school. A special thanks to Troy Henderson and David Nails in our efforts to provide a means for residents to clean up waste this past week.

Kirk Suess,

Steptoe