Focus on the shooters, not the weapons

In his Oct. 17 letter, John MacDonald asks how many mass killings have occurred using bolt-action rifles or revolvers. Quite a few as, it turns out.

But among the many cases where revolvers and bolt guns were used in mass shootings, perhaps the most notable was the so-called Texas Tower Massacre that occurred on Aug. 1, 1966. In what may be the first documented mass killing spree in modern U.S. history, Charles Whitman spent 96 minutes randomly targeting innocent passers-by. In what is eerily similar to the recent tragic event here in Las Vegas, Whitman used a Remington 700 bolt-action hunting rifle to kill 17 people and wound 31 more. Among the other weapons he had in possession on the 28th floor of the University of Texas tower that he used for his killing platform was a Smith & Wesson model 19 revolver.

By the time the investigation was completed, the root cause was easily determined. The shooter, Whitman, suffered from profound mental illness, a malady that went unchecked despite the medical and psychiatric help that he sought prior to this horrific event.

It has become the most tired refrain in the seemingly never-ending debate on gun control, but at some point we need to shift our attention from the weapons used in these horrifying events to the perpetrators themselves. We don’t have a gun problem in our nation. We have a mental illness problem.