Real tragedy is how our nation ignores gun violence

For a time, Virginia Tech was the worst mass shooting in modern U. S. history. Then the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando last year. Now Las Vegas has that dubious distinction.

When I began my career in state and then federal law enforcement in the 1970s, the official weapon for police was the revolver. Chicago Police administrators felt that officers did not need firepower beyond that reliable weapon, even as semi- automatic pistols became the choice on the streets by thugs and drug dealers. For a time in the 1980s, Chicago officers still carried their official revolver but also a second gun — a pistol with clips that allowed more shots and was easily reloaded. Finally, after a few years, the CPD administration relented and made semi- automatic pistols the official weapon.

But it didn’t stop there. The easy availability of high- capacity assault weapons and rifles by the gun industry escalated the lethal potential. They are the featured guns in our ever more violent entertainment. They can easily be modified to fully automatic weapons. Originally, SWAT teams were trained to use these weap- ons in rare instances. Now, many police jurisdictions have these high- capacity, semi- automatics in each squad car. Every gun of whatever caliber used in a massacre, a domestic shooting, a suicide, an accident or another crime starts out as a legal gun.

Like the renegade cigarette industry, the gun industry and the NRA suggest that guns really are not the most important factor in gun mayhem.

The real tragedy is not the shooting but the fact that our country does nothing about gun control except to offer condo- lences. President Donald Trump, in his comments on the Las Vegas massacre, never used the phrase “gun violence.” Obviously he did not want to offend the NRA or his gun- rights supporters.

My brother Michael was killed in 1972 in a robbery aboard a CTA L as he was coming home from Loyola University. While focusing now on semi- automatic rifles and other military guns, we should keep in mind that most suicides, homicides, accidental shootings and other crimes are committed with revolvers and pistols. Congress at this point seems prepared to make it easier to legally own a silencer by eliminating the need for a background check. Removing that ban has been opposed by the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association. Unfortunately, legalizing gun silencers might be the only thing that this Congress and president accomplish before Thanksgiving. Chester J. Kulis, Mount Prospect

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