I read the letter “Shall not be infringed” with amusement and despair. I would like to address a few of the claims the writer made in his letter:

1. When did a “well-regulated militia” become a bunch of people or a person with guns and no regulation? What regulation is going on that I am missing?

2. Yes, we have 11,000 drunk driving deaths. But the old saying that “we don’t ban cars” is utterly ridiculous. You NEED a car. You do not NEED a gun. Last time I checked I could not drive a rifle to work or shopping.

3.  If freely available guns are not the problem, then why are states with higher gun ownership suffering from higher gun homicide rates? We in Rhode Island enjoy one of the lowest gun homicide rates in America. Rhode Island has a gun ownership rate of 15 percent and has gun death rate (all causes of death by guns) of 5.1 per capita. Mississippi, on the other hand, has a gun ownership rate of 51 percent and a death rate of 28 percent. A 500 percent difference!

Are there more crazy people in Mississippi and all the other states with similar statistics? And guess which states those are?

4. I have never had a gun supporter explain to me why the European Union, with a gun ownership rate of 16 per 100 people, has a gun death rate of 2.1 per capita and the U.S. has 120 guns per 100 people, and our gun death rate as a country is 600 percent higher at 12 percent. By the way, the EU has a larger population than the US.

Are Europeans less crazy than Americans?

These are just a few of the extremely easy to obtain facts which support the conclusion that a society with more guns is a more violent society. We rank as a third-world country when it comes to gun violence. And the answer is more?

And why does the gun lobby constantly push back on things even gun owners want. More and better background checks as one example. The Uvalde shooter was a teenager with a mental health and criminal history, and he purchased a military style weapon in one day. That is not acceptable.

I grew up in central Massachusetts. I am 69 and many of my friends’ dads had hunting rifles/shotguns for deer and pheasants. My dad fought in World War II and wanted nothing to do with guns after that. I am not against gun ownership. But I am not interested in living in a state with high gun violence. These myths that are told about guns by gun lovers are just that. A myth.

Mark Crosby
East Providence