According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, cities of 250,000 inhabitants and more account for 20 percent of our nation's population, but 40 percent of its murders. Despite some of the strictest gun-control laws in the nation, our urban communities suffer an average murder rate of 10.1 per 100,000 inhabitants — twice the national rate of 4.8 and seven times the Minnesota rate of 1.4.
If our government officials are serious about addressing violence, they need to abandon cosmetic quick fixes like gun control. Instead, they need to roll up their sleeves and confront the tough problems facing our nation's largest cities.
A first step toward credible action would be for Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar to withdraw their co-sponsorship from Dianne Feinstein's ban on semi-automatic firearms (bill S.150) and Frank Lautenberg's ban on standard-capacity magazines (bill S.33) and the universal firearm registration scheme (bill S.22).
Dennis Waters
Rochester
