What’s the real threat?

Shawn Vestal wrote his quarterly anti-gun rant, this time against armor plates in backpacks. (Note: 12 years cop, 14 years ER, daughter a Freeman survivor, been there, done that). What he protests is actually capitalism: Find a niche for a product, develop it, advertise and hope it sells. Ever heard of Sham-wow?

Shawn doesn’t like the connection between armor in backpacks and school shootings. Is this worse than hiding under my desk during a nuclear attack, end-of-world drill? I survived, my daughter wants to shoot again, and no, I won’t buy it.

Shawn refers to “the defenders of the murder weapon,” which I assume means rifles. In 2017, FBI statistics show, of 15,129 murders nationally, 403 were by rifles. Gun-control fanatics won’t talk about the 467 killed by clubs, 692 by hands/feet, or 1,591 by knives. The dreaded “assault rifle” is used in less than 3% of all murders. Background checks on hammers, registration of all knives — is that next?

In Washington, after several million dollars, we got background checks on private sales of firearms, a gun-controller’s dream. Since passing in 2014, exactly one person has been charged and it has not stopped a single shooting. He calls Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, the “lunatic in charge” and infers he must like all these shootings. Really? So what do you call the head of Purdue Pharma, developers of Oxycontin? 40,000 overdose deaths versus 403? What’s the real threat?

Steven Stuart

Spokane