Canada, U.S. in same mess

Dear editor: So it’s happened again. Actually, that’s not quite true; it’s never stopped happening. Innocents slaughtered in the States, right down to an 18-month-old!

Crime is supposed to happen when motivation and opportunity come together. Who cares what the so-called reasons are; in the U.S. opportunity is everything – the myriad opportunities to own guns, many guns, of any firepower, of any type, by anyone.

In Canada, or any other civilized country, more people would be killed this way, too, if we had so many weapons at hand. After all, we all have gripes, resentments and scores we could settle, even during little temper tantrums, or by accident.

Also in Canada, five people died of fentanyl overdoses in 10 days in Abbotsford. How many die that way in Portugal? Sixteen to 30 a year, thanks to decriminalization of all drugs. (Take that, Paul Crossley, Herald, Nov. 9).

There’s a wise old tale of people, pulling dozens of drowning victims out of a river downstream. No one thinks to go upstream and find out why those people are in the river upstream.

Americans and their so-called gun laws, and Canadians with our outdated drugs laws, are both in the same position.

Joy Lang Penticton