Shoshanah Tov Naiman: Misplaced gun worries

In the Jan. 12 letter “More to violence than guns,” the writer obfuscated the real source of the problem of the massive and increasing numbers of gun deaths in our country. He attempted to misdirect readers to worry about terrorists, lax visa requirements, gangs and policy failures.

The reality is that the number killed by terrorists on U.S. soil within the last decade is 24, while the total number of Americans killed by guns during the same period was 280,024. The people who were killed in mass shootings were less than 1 percent of gun murder victims recorded by the FBI in 2012. So let’s stop focusing on mass shootings and terrorists and visas and recognize the real problems.

We have myriad problems related to guns in our society, from unintentional discharges of open carry or concealed weapons, to unsafe storage and negligence.

Loopholes in our background check system will continue to be one of the biggest problems related to gun violence. However, President Obama’s executive actions to make the system more effective and efficient will improve a background check system that has successfully blocked 2.4 million gun sales to dangerous people since its inception in 1993.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Shoshanah Tov Naiman: Misplaced gun worries."