The Real Threat: Over 400 Million Guns In The United States — Letters that should have been in the new york times

7.9.22

To t he editor:

David Brooks paints a psychological portrait of mass shooters - isolated, lonely, humiliated, vengeful - that acknowledges their 'malicious lunacy' often in the absence of a diagnosed psychiatric illness (7.8.22 Why Mass Shooters Do The Evil They Do). Their alienation and disconnectedness from others makes them hard to see and easy to ignore. I support mental health efforts to identify and help those young (typically) white men who fit this profile. But we should keep in mind that it is only because assault weapons are readily available in our country that a potential mass killer can become an actual one.

Respectfully submitted

Larry S. Sandberg