Having read our State Sen. Jeff Wilson’s opinion piece in the April 12 issue, I feel compelled to comment. I completely agree with the senator that homelessness is a problem, scarce mental health treatment is a problem, and drug addiction is a problem. However, none of this has anything to do with mass shootings. The perpetrators of mass shootings are not disproportionately homeless or drug addicts. They may, in fact, have mental illness, but the fact they can readily obtain military-style guns is clearly a problem.

The guns of choice for mass shootings are designed entirely to kill humans. That is the only purpose of these murder machines. The high-velocity projectiles butcher the targets of these shooters. Our media sanitizes the results, the mangled bloody victims who are torn apart, and sometimes unrecognizable. No hunter would use this weapon if they actually want to eat the game.

The senator notes the fact that we didn’t grow up with frequent mass shootings. These high-velocity military-style weapons weren’t readily available decades ago. Additionally, they were banned from 1994 to 2004 (when the enabling legislation expired), and during that decade mass shootings decreased. Many other countries have homelessness, drugs, mental illness, etc., yet mass shootings like ours are incredibly rare elsewhere.

So let’s not be fooled, “looking into our own hearts and taking responsibility” isn’t going to do anything to prevent more mass shootings unless what we’re taking responsibility for, is getting these military-style weapons off the streets.

JULIE WITTROCK

Ocean Park