Those Gunmen Weren’t Felons

* This rash of recent shootings, too many to list, draws responses such as the one from Paul H. Keil (Letters, Sept. 17).

Repeating the mantra of the gun lobby, he states that “the only guns on the streets are in the hands of felons and criminals.”

Of all the shootings in churches, schools, places of work, hospitals, etc., none was committed by a “felon” or “criminal.”

These were people who thought, as do many gun nuts, that they have a divine right to amass an arsenal of weapons.

They were all “law abiding citizens,” as defined by the zealots of the National Rifle Assn., and decided to take their rage out on innocent people, using the guns they had bought legally.

The gun lobby defense has always been to blame the government or God in order to justify their deep denial of the carnage that weapons are causing in every level of society.

Of all the atrocities we have seen in the past few weeks, I haven’t seen a “felon” or a “criminal” shooting children or churchgoers, only “such nice guys” who obviously were staunch supporters of the right to bear arms and, of course, use them against anybody.

ENRIQUE S. RASMUSSEN

Costa Mesa