I recently read the letter by Mr. Smith in the Nov. 7 issue of the Reporter. My response was “really?”

To talk about “outright warfare hardware” like he did is ridiculous. Cabela’s is a hunting, sportsmen and outdoor recreation store. Of course as part of their ad they are going to have hunting and sporting items. They are not implements of war.

To follow his logic, you would have to ban ads from Home Depot because they advertise sledge hammers and machetes and also ban ads from Williams-Sonoma because they also sell knives and meat tenderizers (which look like maces).

All those items in one form or another were used in war in the past. Cross-bows, tactical rifles (a misrepresentation) and revolvers are tools.  Nothing more than inert metal and plastics, they are neither good nor bad and they have no evil intent of their own. Any tool can be used to harm people.

Mr. Smith expressed dismay that the ad was run right after Marysville. Certainly we all feel horror and disgust at the evil done and the loss of life but again with his logic; if a person was killed by drunk driver or a hit and run with a car, does that mean auto dealers can’t advertise their cars after it?

After considering this I came to the conclusion that the author merely reflects the prevalent problems some Americans suffer from. He seems to have an irrational and almost phobic loathing of firearms and hunting gear. Using a cross-bow to kill Zombies on Living Dead episodes is not reality.

The evil done at Marysville was not because of a firearm. By the way, the pistol used at Marysville was legally bought, and had a valid background check done for it. I-594 would have done nothing to prevent the killings. If a gun wasn’t available he would have used a knife, a baseball bat, a sharpened screwdriver or whatever else he could get his hands on to inflict damage and kill people. Evil will always find a way to do evil.

So ruling that out, what were the factors that led to this and other such events? It is lack of good mental health and prevention systems to address the causes.

Also, no one wants to admit the problem that for years our children have systematically been told that they are special, and they are treated like they are the singularly important thing in the world. Sex is glorified and anything goes. It’s all me first and they don’t learn self-control because that’s stifling to their self-esteem. Everything is justified according to their wants and desires and there are no real social mores anymore that constrain them. Most kids shrug this off, don’t buy into it or just have great loving parents that guided and helped them to become productive, responsible and caring teenagers and adults. But for a significant number society produces narcissistic, obsessed, over-sexed, borderline sociopaths like the kid in Marysville. He found out he wasn’t really special or wasn’t the center of the universe after all and then felt he was “wronged” by his girlfriend and others.

If people would just expend the effort, time and resources to productively address the situations leading to events like Marysville, and didn’t continually waste resources on “feel good” distractions, then we could see some real prevention measures. But that would mean admitting that damaging years of social engineering efforts are to blame.

Drop the phony gun blaming. Everyone needs to support productive measures to find what led boys and young men to this evil and then create decent mental health systems along with worthwhile detection and prevention efforts. If they did, we wouldn’t be having conversations like this.

Bill Webb, Kirkland