Portraying US mass shootings as the result of ‘male violence’ is offensive, argues Daniel Peacock. Plus letters from Christine Crossley and Linda Karlsen

Seldom have I read an opinion piece in the Guardian with such incredulity as Suzanne Moore’s laying the blame for mass shootings and the rise of Donald Trump at the feet of men (G2, 6 August). The overwhelming majority of men are non-violent, law-abiding, and decent.

To describe white supremacy and mass murder as male violence is deeply offensive, akin to holding all Muslims responsible for atrocities committed by al-Qaida and Islamic State. And as for Moore’s apparent argument that men alone have the power to lobby for change to combat gun violence and racism – has she heard of Ivanka Trump? Of Kellyanne Conway? Of Senator Joni Ernst, who declared that, although Trump’s attacks on Democratic congresswomen were indeed racist, she supported him anyway? I fail to see how tarring all men with the same brush as Trump and mass murderers is going to solve anything.

Daniel Peacock

Manchester

• Suzanne Moore is right to draw attention to the fact that a significant common denominator of nearly all of America’s mass shooters is that they are male.

However, power of the kind attributed to being male is not intrinsically gendered but should be challenged whoever is exercising it. It is more the case that a warped concept of masculinity plus lack of any agency and access to guns is the real danger.

Christine Crossley

Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

• Hurrah for Suzanne Moore! In the struggle for equality we women thought that once our historical position had shifted, men’s position would also shift.

Men think that, because they have included some women in bits of their world, they can carry on being what they have always been: controlling, powerful and demanding. The journey to equality continues.

Linda Karlsen

Whitstable, Kent

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• The second letter was amended on 8 August 2019. An earlier version stated that all of America’s mass shooters have been male, which is not the case.