All communities face gun violence

Two good men, Westerville cops just doing their job trying to protect a woman from her disturbed husband, dead. The husband had a gun; of course, he did, they always do!

One hundred fortythree members of our community died last year by homicide; 143, a new record! The vast majority by gunshot. The vast majority, young men — young black men, and also the innocent bystanders in their neighborhoods — who all deserved, in a country as grand as ours, the promise of a future that was more than this.

Many readers are thinking, “Thank God, it's not my neighborhood.” But it is! Domestic violence, suicide, murder-suicide, accidental shootings, guns in school are everywhere. “My neighborhood” soon stretches further into all of “our community.” Will the next tragedy occur at a music concert you attend, at your church service, at your kid’s school?

Some say, “It's mental illness that is the problem.” I say, “Fine, let us enhance mental-health treatment, increase its availability and promote its use.”

Some say, “Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun,” and they promote concealed carry. I say, “More guns mean more gun violence.”

The right to own a gun has already been legitimately qualified; we have all agreed to that, now is the time to qualify further.

So please join me: Write a letter, call our Republican state legislators and congressmen, talk to your acquaintances, march and vote. We need to drastically improve mental-health care, establish antiviolence and gun safety programs in schools. We need to ban assault rifles, "bump-stocks," large magazines, and mandate background checks and waiting periods for all gun sales. In general, we need to decrease the number of guns in America and increase healthy forms of problem-solving.

Greg Wourms, Hilliard