Sandy Hook Elementary School was a "gun-free zone," but that didn't stop a killer. The theater in Colorado was a gun-free zone also, until the crazed killer entered.

Locations where guns are forbidden by law are where people are made totally defenseless against an armed intruder who isn't going to obey that law.

Perhaps if we banned explosives, we wouldn't have mass murder by explosions. If we just banned illegal drugs, we wouldn't have illegal drug use. Or maybe we could try banning alcohol as in the prohibition era. We sure know how these ideas have worked.

Timothy McVeigh didn't use a gun. He caused a massive explosion of the Murrah Federal Building. He killed 19 children and injured more than 680 people. Yet we can still buy fertilizer and the type fuel he used. We also can still rent the type of truck he used. No one is talking about banning those.

As someone stated, if guns cause murders, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, spoons make people fat and matches cause arson.

Murderers will find a weapon to destroy others. Don't be duped by those who have sinister intentions!

JOHN FAULKNER, Richland