TOWNSHEND — RE: “When you throw a gun into the mix” and “Easy access to a gun” [Letters, July 31]:
Just what type of law, Isabel Loudig, would you like the governor to propose that might have prevented the killing at the Brattleboro Food Co-op? Murder is already illegal.
Do you sleep better when people are killed with other tools? We don't need more government control; we need a community that cares for its own instead of exploiting tragedy for a personal agenda. Where is your outrage at the mental heath community, or Richard Gagnon's co-workers, or his family for not intervening before that man felt violence was his only option? How do you blame a tool for a man's actions?
Ruth Witty, may I remind you that your state, Massachusetts, has draconian laws regarding firearms and a higher rate of firearm violence than in Vermont. England might have few firearms, but instances of violence there are more common than here. I seem to recall a man hacked to death with a machete in broad daylight on a public street in London recently.
Vermont is not England, nor is it Massachusetts. For the most part, we have laws that fit our needs. The issue is one of mental-health care, economics, and community, not one of firearms control, as you would imply.
Many of us feel safe in a place where we can defend ourselves, if need be, as opposed to in a community where the government has a monopoly on public “safety” (violence) and the police shoot people in the streets.