Dear Editor,

If you are a supporter of the Second Amendment or belong to the NRA and you feel that thoughts and prayers for the victims of school shootings are inadequate, here is some good news. One can believe that there is a Constitutional right for individual gun ownership and still believe in and support sensible gun safety regulations. Even thoughtful conservatives make that distinction. Antonin Scalia did just that in his opinion stating that the Second Amendment does apply to individual right to bear arms, while also noting that this DOES NOT preclude imposition of reasonable rules and regulations for gun ownership (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf, pp. 54-55).

We should all take note of the craven response of our Congressional representatives like Scott Tipton and Sen. Cory Gardner, who take large NRA contributions (Gardner 3.9 million; Tipton $103,000) and then make sycophantic rationales for support of reduced gun regulation. Their tired excuses amount to the circular argument that gun regulations would be ineffective because there are already so many guns out there. The fact is that there are numerous examples of states and countries that have gun regulations that have resulted in reduced gun violence, for example, Connecticut following the Sandy Hook shooting. While we cannot prevent every tragedy, there is ample evidence that they can be reduced. The lack of a perfect solution is NOT an excuse for rejecting imperfect solutions that reduce gun violence.  Besides they haven't even tried to come up with any policy proposals that would respond to the 80-90 percent of Americans who support some form of gun control.

To those who believe in the romantic idea that an armed citizenry is a bulwark against government oppression, I invite you to give even one example of a successful armed citizen uprising that has succeeded in the modern era of U.S. history. In fact, the most successful uprisings, the Vietnam War resistance and the Civil Rights Movement, were largely non-violent.

Sincerely,

Sharon Corcoran,

Crestone