Guns or the right to have them are only needed to save lives except for those who wish to engage in the
sport of hunting. Compare this with health care. It is needed only to save lives. Anyone would like to
visit a doctor as a friend socially rather than in his office or hospital. In both cases without a
single exception all over the world if we were to ask any human being anywhere in this planet he or she
would agree that the best course is to try as much as possible to adopt the axiom " prevention is
better than cure." I would like any one to disprove this axiom.
Yes, we are all to be blamed for not being able to prevent various forms of violence, including gun
violence in our society. For this sole reason the ideas expressed by Dr. William Feeman in "Guns
for everybody" (Opinion 5/28) have to be seriously contemplated.
How passionate are we in preventing gun violence compared to how passionate we are in collecting guns?
How passionate are we in bringing up our kids to learn all about non-violence compared to how passionate
we are in teaching them how to defend themselves. Should we continually live in a precarious world
eternally condemned to look over your shoulder armed with a gun? When we can excel so magnificently in
so many other areas, can we not overcome this culture of death? Since 1961 I have heard inaugural and
the State of the Union messages. Not once have I heard the term non-violence ever uttered. We can begin
here. Peace is always a process and never a finished product unless we and other humans seriously learn
more about non-violence. Our kids particularly need different role models in growing up if at all we can
have any peace. Maybe we are allergic to it.
V. N. Krishnan
Bowling Green