Letters to the Editor: A first-grader shot his teacher. Where else but in America?

To the editor: “This is a red flag for the country,” said the mayor of Newport News, Va., in response to a 6-year-old shooting his first-grade teacher with a gun at a local school.

In the same print edition, it was reported that gun enthusiasts finally got a federal Court of Appeals to reject the bump-stock ban enacted in response to the Las Vegas massacre that killed 60 people.

Another article reported that Democratic officials’ homes and offices were shot up in New Mexico.

None of these should be a surprise, since the U.S. now has the distinction of having more guns than residents and all three states are open-carry states.

Gun violence claims more than 40,000 American lives per year. It has been declared a public health crisis and a human rights issue. A British mom in Virginia angrily said that she would not be living here if not for her husband and denounced the guns that violate the rights of her family.

They violate yours and mine too.

Susan Perlson, Brea

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To the editor: A 6-year-old shoots and wounds an elementary school teacher in Virginia.

Since the National Rifle Assn. and many Republicans claim the problem isn’t guns, we must now be very wary of 6-year-olds.

Geoff Glassner, Thousand Oaks