Dear Editor: I read that one in five Americans owns a firearm, down from one in two a few decades ago. I’m guessing that the majority of that minority have a gun only for sporting purposes, hunting or competitive target shooting. My concern is with the remaining minority of the minority.

I believe the desire to possess a handgun, carried in or on a person’s clothing while in the community, or a gun configured to look like a military weapon, or a firearm magazine that holds more than the five or six rounds necessary for sport shooting, or a device like a bump stock that converts a gun to automatic fire, should be taken as de facto evidence of mental instability. We don’t need mental health professionals to weed out people too dangerous to have firearms, they self-select themselves at the point of purchase. The desire to possess devices specifically designed to kill human beings in military combat is as clear a sign of mental derangement as if someone stood naked on a street corner speaking in tongues. Whether their mental impairment is sexual inadequacy, need for dominance, uncontrolled anger, or unreasonable fear, a firearm is exactly the wrong treatment for their pathology.