Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke called for confiscating assault weapons and the gun fans went berserk. There’s even been letters in the Coeur d’Alene Press claiming gun ownership is “a God-given right.” Strange, that’s not in my Bible.

President Trump and his minions are right to say our epidemic of gun violence is a mental illness problem. You have to be mentally ill to believe thoughts and prayers are sufficient to solve the problem. You have to be mentally deficient to think more guns will reduce the number of mass shootings.

To understand how absurd pro-gun arguments are, just substitute alternatives for the word “gun.” Try, “Bombs don’t kill people, people kill people.” Or how about, “It takes a good guy with a bazooka to stop a bad guy with a bazooka.”

There’s also, “That cannon didn’t fire itself, a person did” and “When missiles are outlawed only outlaws will have missiles.” And there’s, “It’s not a grenade control problem, it’s a mental health problem.”

Finally, they could say, “The Second Amendment guarantees my God-given right to own artillery.”

Arguments against gun control sound insane when you replace “gun” with other forms of mass murder.

PAUL OMAN

Moscow