Eric Hinesley: Gun violence not a health issue

The June 10 editorial “Untie binds on gun safety” was wrong. Aside from mental health problems, gun violence is not a health issue; it is a social, cultural and moral issue.

Reasons for increased gun violence include drugs, gangs, breakdown of the family, poverty, moral relativism, removing prayer and religion from schools, lack of respect for human life, absence of male authority figures and mentors in the lives of juvenile males, mental health issues, etc. More than half of the deaths from guns each year are suicides.

Furthermore, the National Rifle Association is not the enemy. NRA members, in general, are law-abiding people, not the people committing the gun crimes.

The NRA is keenly aware of the potential for government overreach in the form of unnecessary and misguided regulations, as we have so often seen.

The CDC, a health watchdog, does not need to be involved.

Gun violence is highest in cities with the strictest gun control laws, e.g., Chicago, so more gun control laws are not the answer.

When society addresses the cultural, social, economic and moral causes of increasing violence, especially drugs and gangs, the level of gun violence will decrease accordingly.

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Eric Hinesley: Gun violence not a health issue."