Dec 22, 2012 3 min read

I’m sure the Rev. Gerard F. Weiss’ letter, “Reach Out To Loners,” published Wednesday, was crafted with only the best of intentions. However, it was rooted in naivete. Adam Lanza, like Jared Loughner (who shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords), James Holmes (who shot up a theater during the “Dark Knight Rises” premiere in Aurora, Colo.) and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the pair who shot up Columbine High School), was not just a loner. He was feared. Feared so much that no single person merely befriending a troubled soul could rectify.

Adam Lanza’s mother feared her son to the point that she allegedly sought to have him committed to an institution, which, in retrospect, was the correct venue for dealing with this kid’s madness.

Harris, Klebold, Loughner and Lanza were all incapable of living normally in society. What sorts of medication Lanza was prescribed will certainly become known as the facts of this case unfold. One thing is certain: These types of incidents were unheard of until many of the asylums were closed from coast-to-coast, following lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1980s in an effort to “mainstream” emotionally and mentally disturbed people.

While we were so concentrated on restoring these individuals’ “rights to live normally,” apparently nobody thought out the potential fallout in case these people couldn’t cope with life.

So now it’s blame the guns – a completely inanimate object, a tool that is not unlike a pipe wrench, a shovel or crowbar (since all can be used to kill another), a tool that is meant to protect its owner from violence and mayhem.

The Rev. Weiss feels (as I’m positive the editorial department of this paper does, as well) there are too many guns. Here’s an idea. Let’s remove them from policemen, the Sheriff’s department and all law enforcement, too. But, before we agree to that, let’s find out how that worked out in England.

Rev. Weiss, there aren’t too many guns. In Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona and in other locales where this type of carnage has taken place, there were too few guns. The only way for a good person to stop a bad person with a gun is to possess a firearm as well. That is indisputable. There simply is no other way, no matter whether a small, but vocal few are offended by this fact or not.

John A. Quayle

Washington