Letters to the Editor

Letter: Keep mentally ill killers in jail

While the Newtown incident was about as tragic as one could imagine, the recent incident in New York involving William Spengler, who lured firemen to his house by starting a fire and then ambushing them, ranks right up there.

An obviously mentally ill man beats his paternal grandmother to death with a hammer; we put him in jail and then let him go after 17 years (not life?) only to kill again. This time he uses illegally obtained guns and kills firemen who came to do their job.

The moral of the story, folks, is that mentally disturbed people do these heinous acts of violence and they will use a hammer, knife, gun, fire or whatever their messed up mind desires. Until we start keeping mentally ill killers in jail and identifying the mentally ill walking our streets, banning the sale of guns will have zero effect on these crimes. It is time to deal with the real issues as hammers and guns don't do the killing.

— Preston Rudderow

Anchorage

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