The Jan. 5 Sun-Times editorial correctly lauded learning from New York City how to curb Chicago’s gun violence by tougher sentencing for carrying or using a gun. It quotes a new U. of Chicago Crime Lab study that says “arguments . . . turn deadly . . . because a gun is at hand.”
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Intuitively this makes sense to most clear-thinking people. But not to the National Rifle Association. Its spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, famously claims “The only answer to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” As if the total banishment of handguns could not be an option, were the Supreme Court to reinterpret the 2nd Amendment; and as if a society armed to the teeth is an ideal way to live.
Judging from the hundreds of illegal guns the Chicago police are confiscating, with 2016 seizures up 20 percent over 2015, it would seem the NRA’s philosophy is in effect among a certain segment of our society, and we see the consequences: More shootings and more killings in Chicago than New York and Los Angeles combined. Imagine how much more deadly life would be if all of us were to arm ourselves as the NRA suggests. Between road rage, boozy beefs, jealous rages and countless other mundane provocations that go fatal only because a gun is handy, the coroner and the undertakers would be working overtime.
Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park
Mean-spirited takedown
Reading the mean-spirited takedown of President Barack Obama by right-wing commentator Michael Barone (“Obama never shook his faculty lounge arrogance”), I thought about a point-by-point rebuttal, but then settled on this: Mr. Obama served during difficult times but presided over enduring changes for good that people of Mr. Barone’s persuasion will find hard to erase. He did cause one increase in unemployment for which we should all be grateful: under his watch the Honor Guard at Dover Air Force Base has had a lot less to do.
Thomas W. Evans, Mundelein
Real cyber-security
I know of a simple, foolproof way to make it impossible to hack into anybody’s personal communications: two Dixie cups and some string.
Ken Greenberg, Skokie
Doesn’t understand foreign policy
Now Donald Trump has sided with Julian Assange, who claims the Russians are innocent while our intelligent agencies say they have proof that Putin approved the hacking of our presidential election to tilt it in favor of Trump.
I wonder if all the Republicans that voted for Trump are happy that we have a president-elect who doesn’t understand foreign policy and is siding with Putin, Russian hackers and a traitor like Assange verses our American intelligence agencies.
Tom Minnerick, Elgin
What Barone really said
My jaw hit the floor when I read the opinion titled “Obama never shook his faculty lounge arrogance” by Michael Barone in today’s Sun-Times. Seeing that we are about to hand the keys to the country to the most arrogant man who has ever presided in the White House, these comments seem to come from a different motivation.
The whole story only makes sense when the reader replaces the word “arrogant” with “uppity.”
Don Anderson, Oak Park
