LETTER: Extreme gun culture prevents reform

In his recent letter on Lev Schneiderman repeats the two usual tropes one hears from the extreme gun culture. The first is that criminals do not obey gun laws. This is presented as a rationale for having no gun laws whatsoever. The second is that the other side “is doing everything they can to infringe on the Second Amendment.” This, more often than not, is expressed as, “They’ll take our guns.”

In fact, most Americans are for both gun ownership and sensible gun laws. To invoke either of the above pieces of bumper sticker logic becomes the conversation stopper. That has prevented virtually all reasonable discourse on the limits of the Second Amendment.