DAN DONALDSON, Prosser

Though we keep light in our hearts for innocent victims of shootings, we must maintain a broad scope of issues.

It is a fact: After every shooting of innocents, anti-gun terrorists rise up and scream, "The sky is falling." (See quote: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.") Fact: Firearms are designed to cast a projectile from point to point with some degree of accuracy. Fact: Firearm -- in grace and complexity -- is among tools somewhere between monkey wrench and piano. A firearm is useful in gathering provisions, defending self, family home, property and pets. Piano ... well, everyone knows piano.

It is an arguable point that if any members of the groups of innocents had been armed, fewer lives would have been taken. Arguable point: No restrictive gun laws would have prevented the mentally ill, habitually criminal, nor wickedly opportunistic from taking lives. Fact: Free people own arms; slaves and subjects do not. Consider historical Germany and Italy, and several dozen other modern countries that have caved to thugs. Counterbalance: See the research and writings of Dr. Gary Kleck, Florida State University of Criminology, whose long study concludes: "Private ownership of guns deters crime."