Our senators responded appropriately to a knee-jerk reaction to the tragedy, a knee- jerk reaction that emotionally cried for something to be done. Something. A tragedy it was, there's no disputing. And you're right to be outraged.
But nothing in any of the recent bills would have prevented the tragedy from happening. Nothing. And everything that has happened lately in the form of gun violence is already covered under numerous state and federal laws. Everything.
But we, fools that we are, enact numerous laws and then do nothing to enforce them. Chicago has the most restrictive gun laws in the country and the highest gun deaths in the country, yet it also has the lowest federal prosecution of gun crimes in the country.
Federal prosecution of gun crimes are down 40 percent over the last decade. So scream, if you must, to our government to do the job we pay them to and enforce existing law.
— John Klapproth
Anchorage