Dec 3, 2014 2 min read

Once again, public opinion overlooks personal responsibility and vilifies the gun. The recent shooting in Upper St. Clair blames the gun, as though it were an animate object. Your editorial calls for more gun regulation. I’d call your attention to the 140 pages of gun laws, available in booklet form from any member of the PA Legislature, and ask you what new law would prevent two completely irresponsible adults from playing with a gun? Some reports indicated alcohol was involved, but so what if it was? This shooting, described as an accident, was the culmination of a series of events, all of which violated common sense as well as basic rules of gun safety.

We don’t need another law, another lecture, or another editorial that blames the gun. Had this accident occurred as a result of the participants engaging in a game of hot potato with a hand grenade with the pin pulled, would you be so quick to blame the hand grenade, or the two knuckleheads who thought it a good idea to engage in dangerous games?

This terrible loss of life once again shows that our educators are terrified to teach gun safety from K-12. By all accounts, there are some 330 million guns in lawful hands. Even at that, only 600 or less true accidental deaths by firearm occur annually. We can make that number shrink even more through education. Unfortunately, no legislation has ever eliminated stupidity. Your jaded editorial completely overlooks personal responsibility, making the death an emotion filled argument, bereft of facts.

John DeLallo

Castle Shannon