In response to the Daily’s editorial from Tuesday, I would like to mention a few things. First of all, before we say things like “Letting the ban expire is careless and dangerous,” let’s determine exactly what careless and dangerous is.

If statistically causing higher deaths classifies something as dangerous, then to keep from being careless we better put a ban on motor vehicles right away. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration boasts a historically low accident rate on our nation’s highways last year: Only 43,643 people died in auto accidents and only 2.89 million (yes, that’s million) people were injured.

We are now talking some pretty small numbers of crimes that would have been deterred by this gun ban. This ban punished the honest buyer more than the criminals.

Now let’s look at the flip side. Studies have shown that guns are used more than two million times a year for personal protection. That’s sure a hell of a lot more often than they’re used in crime. It’s been said many times before, and I’ll say it again, guns are not the source of crime; criminals are. I understand we all want to make the world a safer place, but let’s keep things in perspective.

You wouldn’t want me to vote to ban your cars, so don’t vote to ban my guns.

Chris Lee

Senior

Animal Ecology