Thanks to the Daily Inter Lake for printing the story on Oct. 12 from the Associated Press, written by Mike Stobbe, regarding gun violence researchers lacking in U.S.  

Some of the facts bear repeating to emphasize the magnitude of the problem.

1) During 1986 and 1987, more than 66,000 Americans died from gunshot wounds — a greater toll than the U.S. forces during the entire Vietnam War.

2) In June 2014, the Journal of Preventive Medicine published a paper from Centers for Disease Control researchers that noted deaths from gunfire have been holding steady at about 32,000 a year, which is more than the total U.S. military deaths during the war in Korea.

3) Currently gun-inflicted injuries rank among the top five killers of people ages 1 to 64.

4) Studies found that having a gun in the house tripled the risk that someone there would be murdered and dramatically increased the chance of suicide.

Our Montana politicians, Sens. Daines and Tester and Rep. Zinke, appear to be unwilling to even recognize this huge problem.  

Four people were killed in Benghazi, and a House Select Committee was formed to investigate the cause. Tens of thousands are killed annually with guns in our nation and no effort is made to determine the cause and effect and seek a solution. The U.S. has 5 percent of the world population yet it sees 31 percent of public mass shootings. The most devastating of these mass shootings, for me, was the murder of 20 small children and 5 teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.

I received a letter of invitation from the NRA to become a member of their organization and “save my freedom.” I responded to Mr. La Pierre and the NRA by telling them that the freedom they refer to in their letter is already lost. Their organization supports the very people that have taken that freedom from me and millions of other Americans, many of whom are gun owners. That freedom is the freedom to attend church, go to a movie, send our children to school and many other private and public places without the fear of being shot.  

The NRA, with its great financial power, could be a force to search for a solution to the daily murder that is prevalent throughout our country today. I admonish the NRA to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Their solution to arm all of our citizens is absurd. Millions of Americans are not capable or willing to handle a firearm and thus arming them would only make the situation worse. To shoot first on suspicion would be murder and to wait you are dead. The teacher standing in front of her class was shot through a window and killed. Had she been armed, it would not have saved her life or the lives of her students. I was in the U.S. Army infantry heavy weapons. I learned to fire and handle many different weapons and as a result understand the dangers involved even with well-trained soldiers. The NRA’s financial power to intimidate our politicians renders them fearful and unwilling to even  discuss a solution to the slaughter that occurs daily. The silence in all quarters regarding gun violence is deafening. —Jerry Reckin, Kalispell