As a nation, we must change our failed gun laws

To purchase a cigarette or a can of beer in this country, one must be 21 years old. To get a driver’s license and drive a car, one must pass a rigorous test and secure liability insurance.

But, as we’ve seen in Buffalo this past weekend, and in other places over the years, a teenager can apparently walk into a gun shop and buy a powerful semiautomatic rifle after submitting to a cursory background check — even if the teen has recently threatened to shoot up his school, undergone psychiatric evaluation and written a long, violently racist and patently menacing screed.

Until we as a society resolve to confront the National Rifle Association and change our failed gun laws, future such incidents are inevitable, and we will all be complicit.

Hugh Iglarsh, Skokie