It appears that we will end the presidential election campaign with neither major party candidate taking on a major problem in this country: gun violence. No surprise there, although still disappointing.
The gun lobby wins again and stories of mass murder continue to pile up.
In one of the latest incidents, a known violent man bought a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun from another person and then used it to kill his estranged wife and two other women at a salon in Wisconsin. The weapon purchase was legal in Wisconsin because it was not done in an established business. This is the giant loophole in firearms regulations that helps produce those weekly news stories of multiple murders.
The organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns points out that 40 percent of gun sales in this country aren’t subject to a federal background check. Most of the states put no restriction on private gun sales — and even the background check system is unreliable because of poor reporting into it by many states, including Iowa. Anyone can get a gun almost anywhere and use it for random killing.
Why do we tolerate this threat to civil life?
Frank Wessling
