As the father of a student killed in the Columbine massacre, I feel compelled to respond to Congressman Ken Buck’s opinion piece. I was appalled by how detached he seems to be from the reality of this critical issue.

Incredulously, Buck insists the gun show loophole “doesn’t actually exist.” I wonder if he’s willing to say that directly to the families of the Columbine victims. After all, the Columbine shooters bought three of their guns at a gun show, purposely buying from a private, unlicensed seller, knowing there’d be no background check, no paperwork, no questions asked — that’s the gun show loophole. Buck apparently thinks such private sales are somehow privileged and should be exempt from background checks. In reality, guns purchased from private sellers are just as lethal as guns from a dealer.

Buck argues that assault rifles are not a problem because they represent a small percentage of firearm deaths. That should come as no surprise, since there are far fewer rifles than handguns. Buck points out the numbers of deaths caused by hammers, knives and fists and asks whether those pushing an assault rifle ban would “be willing to sponsor a hammer ban as well.” No, I think Americans recognize that hammers were invented for a far different purpose than an assault rifle. They know all too well the tragic damage done by these weapons of war, allowing mass shooters to mow down many people very quickly, often with high velocity bullets that cause far more damage than most handguns.

Buck dismisses the call to prohibit gun sales to people on the “no fly” list because the list has inaccuracies. That’s true, but he makes no suggestion he would work to clean up the list. It’s absurd that we knowingly view some people as too dangerous to board airplanes but not too dangerous to buy firearms.

Buck demonizes people like me who seek stronger gun laws, saying we “oppose the Bill of Rights” and implying we’re seeking “confiscation.” No, I think we simply recognize that rights are not absolute, as has even been affirmed recently by a conservative Supreme Court. We are not seeking confiscation, and we question how anyone could believe that 300 million firearms could somehow be confiscated.

Is Buck not aware that 70 percent of Colorado voters closed the gun show loophole in 2000, that 85 percent now support universal background checks, and that even a great majority of gun owners and NRA members support those checks? Does he think those people are also guilty of “opposing the Bill of Rights?”

I agree with Buck that a variety of social ills can “lead people to hurt others.” But does he think that other industrialized nations don’t have those same social ills? Of course they do. But none have a gun violence rate even close to America’s, because they take a more responsible attitude toward guns. We have the easiest access to firearms, the highest gun ownership, the weakest gun laws — and, shamefully, the highest level of gun violence.

Buck’s solution to this problem emphasizes jailing more people. Is he not aware that we already have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Is he suggesting we keep prisoners locked up longer, or incarcerate more people? At what cost?

He also suggests we need to address the causes of violence. That’s rather hypocritical, given that the gun lobby for years has included clauses in federal legislation that prohibit the use of any federal funding to study gun violence! That’s right, we can’t even study it.

Buck places much of the blame for violence on problems normally associated with the inner city — even though we’ve tragically seen that many mass shootings and domestic shootings also occur in rural and suburban areas.

Buck apparently does not see easy access to firearms, high gun ownership or weak gun laws as contributors to our gun violence problem. Experts in the counseling field tell us that one of the first steps in addressing a problem is to admit that you have one. The denial of these problems by Buck and other gun rights extremists will only ensure that we continue to fail to address this tragic gun violence of ours.

Tom Mauser is the father of Daniel Mauser, one of the victims at Columbine High School in 1999, and is spokesman for Colorado Ceasefire, which lobbies for stronger gun laws.