Ex-military chiefs urge gun control legislation

UNITED STATES: Sixteen of the nation’s top retired military commanders are urging Congress to pass gun control legislation, arguing that there are many steps that can be taken to curb gun deaths that do not violate the Second Amendment.

In a letter they plan to send to Congressional leaders, the retired commanders, including army generals Wesley Clark and Michael Hayden, navy admiral Eric Olson, air force Lieutenant General Norman Seip and Marine Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, argue that Congress is ‘‘no longer speaking or voting for the majority of Americans, including gun owners’’ when it comes to the issue of firearms.

‘‘There is no acceptable excuse for our elected leaders to avoid addressing this as a national crisis,’’ they write.

The group is part of the veterans coalition of a gun control group founded by former US Rep Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. They laid out their arguments in a letter to Congressional leaders.

The retired military men and women said that, as military leaders, they defended the Constitution and have considerable firearms training.

As Americans, they said, they find the level of gun violence across the country unacceptable, calling the shootings that killed 58 people in Las Vegas in October and 26 in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November ‘‘but the latest instances of shocking horror’’ that the nation has experienced in recent years.

‘‘Thoughts and prayers will not bring solutions,’’ they write.

According to the Centres for Disease Control, the rate of gun deaths rose for the second straight year in 2016, to 12 per 100,000 people. –