Lisa Price: Gun lobby not protecting lives

I want to thank Campbell University associate professor Kevin Lee for his June 26 Point of View “Selfishness over safety.” He stated that for the pro-gun lobby “the right to own a weapon for self-protection outweighs the safety of our communities which the government is tasked with defending.”

During the years I directed North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, I asked pro-gun people: “Don’t you care about citizens injured or killed by guns? Have you no empathy for people killed in gun accidents, suicides and murder? Can’t we agree that to help prevent this carnage we must have laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands?”

But, tragically, we see that the gun lobby does not agree. Its selfishness, paranoia, anger, vigilantism and hostility toward government outweigh concern for the lives of others, for the common good.

However, the tide is turning as more Americans express their outrage about gun violence. Many of us are increasingly optimistic that federal and state legislators will agree, in Lee’s words, that “government’s first responsibility is to protect the lives of citizens.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Lisa Price: Gun lobby not protecting lives."