Mike Rose, Minot

I have never understood why a large segment of our population in the United States and North Dakota have indicated that owning a gun is more important than the lives of our children. I have never understood why the right to own an assault rifle that is designed to kill many people quickly is more important than our children’s lives. Over the years we have heard a variety of excuses why we can’t have major gun control, but it always comes down to the fact that a large portion of our population values guns more than the safety of our children.

The United States has seven times the death rate of children from guns than Canada, our closest neighbor and friend. Why do Canadians care more about their children than the United States citizens do? Actually, all peer countries have dramatically lower death rates from guns than the United States.

In 2021 there were 20,958 gun homicides in the U.S. In England and Wales, there were 31. We basically stand alone in our lack of concern for the safety of our citizens or the willingness to address the elephant in the room, which is too many guns.

It’s obvious at this point people are not willing to make the individual sacrifice of getting rid of their guns to start a trend of fewer guns and safer communities. Because of our unwillingness to make that sacrifice, on an average, 11 children a day will continue to die from gun violence.