We’re missing the bigger picture in the conversations about gun violence [letter]

During the presidential campaign, some of the ads on television were screaming about immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally killing or raping people.

Such crimes are gut-wrenching for families, friends and acquaintances who knew the victims. Those who are guilty of these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Sixty people attending a concert in Las Vegas in 2017 were killed by a shooter. I am sure friends and families of those 60 individuals are still hurting.

When dozens of children and teachers were killed in numerous school shootings across the United States, those who knew and loved them were devastated.

In 2020, about 45,000 U.S. citizens were killed by guns — more than 19,000 of them were killed by someone else squeezing a trigger.

And now there is not a word about reasonable gun control. Military-style semiautomatic weapons can be bought in many places, sometimes without a background check. Thirty-bullet magazines are legal in many places.

But no one is talking about this. Instead, most of the campaign debate was centered around a half-dozen unfortunate individuals who were the victims of attacks by immigrants who are here illegally.

The thousands and thousands killed by Americans go unmentioned.

Jay George