Dear editor,
The two human traits that drive human decisions are emotion and logic but seldom are they both used when human decisions are made. Marriage and divorce are normally made from our emotional side but putting astronauts on the moon uses logic. There is no place for emotions in math or science but logic is also never a part of romance or many other aspects of life. Our emotions come from the heart but our logic comes from the brain.
As humans, children are more emotional but as adults emotions don't solve problems. Logic does.
Our society is not allowed to vote until the adult age of 18 which just happens to be the age most people graduate high school and either go to college, enter the work force or both.
Most of our worse decisions are made at a young age and are based in emotions and not logic. Some in society grow up faster than others and some never actually grow up which can be seen with their later still-emotional decisions in life.
The youngest age to enter a national elected office is 25 years old with all others at 35.
Of the 14 worst mass shootings, six were school shootings and the oldest person to commit a school shooting is 20 years old. The oldest to commit a college shooting including the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting was that 25-year-old with the one exception of the Binghamton school shooter who was 41.
Of these 14 shootings, there were a variety of weapons used including pipe bombs but the worst school shooting as far as the number killed utilized two hand guns.
Two of these college shooters were Asian. The oldest shooter was that 41-year-old Vietnamese man until the recent white 64-year-old Las Vegas shooter.
All these school shooters had a connection with the school where their crime was committed while the obvious signs and maybe other signs regarding the shooters were overlooked.
My question is this. Should school children be used to make governing decisions over guns versus decisions that would truly protect their schools from their own peers that are the school mass shooting generation? A good person with a gun has the best chance to stop a bad person's criminal intent with a gun, harden our schools and truly protect our children.
Oh the days of the "Class of 1978" where guns were in the rear windows of trucks and no one was shot or even threatened with a gun at school. What is truly different now?
STEVEN KING
Milton
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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: LETTER: Gun laws should be made with logic, not emotion