How many more?

To the editor: 

On April 15, Donald Trump addressed the NRA and gave the speech he knew his gun-loving fans wanted to hear. He said the issue is not too many guns; it is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our streets. 

Right now there are over 400 million guns in circulation in the U.S., and at least 20-25 million are weapons of war, AR-15s and AK-47s. How many more guns would Trump and the NRA think would be too many?  

Is this the “well regulated militia” the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote the Second Amendment? Contrary to the “politicians” on the Supreme Court that decided the Heller Case, you cannot rationally separate the phrase “well regulated militia” from “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” It makes no sense unless the real motive is to rescind or nullify the Second Amendment.  

The pandemic of gun violence is not only unlikely to slow down, it is likely to increase. Does anyone really believe that any of the various strategies proposed to reduce gun violence will be passed into law? The Republican Party is controlled by the gun lobby. The media and the public talk about the last mass shooting, the Louisville, Kentucky, bank shooting that left six dead and eight wounded. But just days later, on April 15, there were mass shootings reported in Waianae, Hawaii; Dadeville, Alabama; Northridge, California; Newark, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; and yet another in Louisville. 

Maybe after the next mass shooting, or shootings, after the police work is done, we should ask the media and the public to think about the next mass shooting — which will probably be within a day or two.  

Michael J. Gorman