America’s association with guns is embarrassing

My sister sent me a poem written by British poet Brian Bilston who often posts on Twitter and Facebook:

The contrast in the associations among nations puts the United States in quite an embarrassing and shameful position. I hope you type “America is a Gun” by Brian Bilston into your search engine and read it.

This hits me in the gut!

I am not proud of our reputation to be associated with weapons and violence. I would much prefer any of the following: apple pie, land of diversity, giving to others in need, joy.

Is it hopeless to think that we can every change? While I will never own a gun I am not against guns for the purpose of target shooting and hunting. This is certainly possible while we also improve safety with gun safety laws; requiring gun safety training for anyone handling a weapon, background checks for all purchases and giving of guns to another person, requiring liability insurance, keeping guns out of the hands of anyone with history of mental illness or domestic violence, eliminating 3-D gun printing and more safeguard s0 as well as forbidding anyone not in the military and with a permit to be able to have an automatic weapon.

I hope you read the poem. Please consider at least one action you can take to address this huge danger we have. My first step was to write this to the editor.

Marilyn Jacobson

Mukilteo