F. Cordell took issue in the Jan. 2 issue of the Towson Times with Jane Norman's plea to limit the public's access to guns by restricting sales at gun shows ("Cancel upcoming gun show; don't make guns so available," Letters, Dec. 26).. A vague explanation of the gun purchaser's background check process was provided by F. Cordell, in an apparent attempt to ease the public's concerns about gun buyers. Thank you – we are now able to sleep well at night knowing that all legal gun transactions are foolproof and secure, with no need to worry about the messy shenanigans sometimes associated with firearms.
But the thing is, legal weapons are often used for nefarious reasons. On the morning of Dec. 24 in Rochester, N.Y., firefighters Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were shot and killed when they responded to a fire call. Another firefighter and a police officer were seriously wounded allegedly by an ex-convict as he lay in wait for them on a nearby hill. The Bushmaster assault rifle and Mossberg shotgun allegedly used in the attack were allegedly purchased in 2010 at a local sporting goods store, by the 22-year-old daughter of a neighbor. She was young and had a clean record; the man accused is 60 with a criminal record.We cannot cling to the naïve belief that we are safe merely because someone runs a background check on a gun buyer. Guns change hands and the simple truth is, more guns in more hands means more gun-based crimes.
Andrea Koller
Towson