This is in response to Mary Jane Newell’s letter (March 25) titled, “No to gun control.” She states that drivers between the ages of 16 and 17 are nearly nine times more likely to have an accident than middle-aged drivers. There are more deaths from auto accidents than guns.

Are those people being killed intentionally? No, they are accidents.

Mass shootings are no accident.

So maybe we should ban cars, she says. Really?

Let’s look at the intent of a car. Its intent is to transport people from point A to point B. Cars are not designed or promoted as killing machines. Guns are. Cars don’t kill people; distracted and/or impaired drivers kill people.

Newell says that instead of gun control, elected officials should change the age to get a driver’s license to 21 or at least 18. A teenager’s parents decide at what age their teenager is responsible enough to drive.

As far as gun control goes, if a person can’t hunt with it, he or she should not have the right to own it. And military-style weapons should stay with the military.

Dana Philippon, Lisbon Falls

Comments are no longer available on this story