To the Editor: BG standoff raised gun control issue

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After reading the Opinion "BG Standoff had the potential to end as a tragedy" (June 10) it set
me thinking about the never ending gun control issue.
I am neither a pro- gun nor an anti-gun advocate. I am neutral because I am only a researcher and have no
personal axe to grind or a favorite position to espouse.
I request anyone who reads this letter to go back and read the last three paragraphs of the Opinion, and
especially, "They need to continually anticipate the worst, when responding to those
"routine" situations".
How can an untrained citizen defend himself or herself when not continually anticipating those routine
situations?
When a trained law enforcement officer himself is killed as it has happened so many times, how useful is
a fire arm to an ordinary guy.
The research question here is the following: Does the easy availability and the number of fire arms per
head influence in any way the rise in those "routine situations"? Will distributing more guns
to more people lessen or increase "situations" where shots are fired? Is there anything
society can do to make the "routine situations" less "routine"? One may disagree
with the use of the term "routine" and that too is a part of the research.
Finally if anything is to be done to lessen the "situations" where shots are being fired, what
are they? If a solution is discovered will adopting them infringe our rights whatever they may be? How
will we deal with that issue?
The major problem is to do the research without an agenda to support. That applies to both sides of the
issue.
V. N. Krishnan
Bowling Green

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