Nathan Gibson, New Virginia

Letter to the Editor

A recent column promoting gun control [Honor Gabby Giffords by electing gun reformers, Oct. 4], was one-sided and ignores decades of research that shows gun control laws do not work.

While everyone is sympathetic to Rep. Gabby Gifford, I reject the knee-jerk call for more gun control laws. Giffords wants to impose so-called universal background checks on all gun transfers. Criminals, by definition, won’t obey this law. They will go around it and continue getting guns through theft and from their criminal associates. Meanwhile law-abiding Iowa citizens will have more government pile on in the form of paperwork and fees.

We can all agree we don’t want terrorists getting guns, but the problem is the nation’s Terror Watch List is notoriously unreliable and totally secretive. Innocent people such as toddlers and even former Sen. Ted Kennedy have been on that list. If known terrorists are freely walking about our streets — and the government knows who they are — by all means lock them up or throw them out! But don’t deny law-abiding Iowa citizens their gun rights.

Lastly, I agree with Giffords that those who are mentally ill and may pose a danger to themselves or others should not have access to firearms. That is already federal law. The problem is many states are not sharing those critical mental health records with the NICS federal database that is used to screen for background checks. Until we get those records in the system, dangerously mentally ill people will continue to pass background checks.

— Nathan Gibson, New Virginia