Hope dim for U.S. gun control

Re: “Blame hate, not guns, says U.S. president” (Montreal Gazette, Aug. 6)

I’m sick and tired of the inordinate amount of time the media wastes reporting on the need for gun control in the United States. With each and every mass shooting, everyone south of the border wrings their hands and demands that something be done, only nothing is ever accomplished. CNN is a particular culprit, reporting incessantly in the 24 hours or so immediately following an incident, then curiously becoming silent when the news item is no longer a hot topic.

Let’s face facts. The people of the United States in general simply do not support gun control strongly enough to ensure that their voices in Congress be heard. What hope can there be when so many children were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School and, rather than new restrictions on guns being enacted (as was done so quickly in New Zealand after the shooting in March), there are to the contrary conspiracy groups that actually deny the event even took place? And as for the hypocrites in the Democratic Party, let’s not forget that no meaningful gun-control measures were instituted during the two-term presidencies of either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, both Democrats. That’s a combined 16 years of inaction.

Any American who thinks that effective gun control can be achieved in the United States anytime soon is seriously deluding himself or herself.

Ian B. Copnick, Côte-St-Luc