We should be courageous and address real gun-reform issues

I WAS SHOCKED and disappointed to read the Feb. 20 editorial on a “middle ground” on gun reforms. I had to remind myself that this was an Albuquerque Journal editorial, not propaganda from Michael Bloomberg or the Brady Campaign. It was filled with usual left-wing “solutions” to violence accompanied by usual platitudes about understanding the importance of the Second Amendment and recognizing most gun owners are law-abiding.

Laws are statements written down on a piece of paper. Criminals or mentally disturbed people do savage things regardless of what’s written down. When will we forget about Band-Aids and get serious about the societal rot afflicting America? Instead of preaching about useless gun control, how about talking about the needs of isolated and depressed people? ... Teaching our morally directionless kids about respect and accountability?

... Discussing how to pull people out of their virtual worlds and into the real world?

... Teaching that selfsacrifice is more noble then self-gratification? ... Teachers, parents, civic and religious leaders providing counter examples to the Hollywood sex, violence and decency vacuum?

I was in high school once and we had guns that could kill people, but we did not live in fear of mass shootings. Why? Please get ... more courageous to address our real problems instead of proposing simple-minded solutions that infringe on decent people and weaken the American ideals enshrined in our Constitution.

DOMINICK BURLONE Rio Rancho