LETTER: Living in the past on guns

Some people argue that guns are needed to protect from government tyranny and use the fight for independence from British rule as evidence. Citizens with guns were able to step up and help our fledgling government win against an invading force.

But instead of tyranny by our government since then, what we have experienced is private “for-profit” growth of gun manufacturing with sales to people who are concerned that, if they do not have a gun, they will be unprotected against bad acts by our government. This situation has led to an oversupply of firearms and their easy availability. Gun holders have been killing others and themselves “in mass” with daily regularity.

Consider the odds, one case in which our government needed armed help more than 200 years against an outside force alongside daily slayings. Don’t we need to chill and rethink what we are doing? Our democratically elected government is clearly more attuned to protecting us than practicing tyranny against us. Do we really need all those guns?