In 1924, Thomas Midgley performed a demonstration at a press conference to show the gasoline additive tetraethyl lead was harmless. He washed his hands with it and inhaled vapors from a bottle for 60 seconds. Soon after, Mr. Midgely quietly went off to Europe to get treatment for lead poisoning. Thanks to his efforts, industry public relations and lobbying, it was almost 50 years before action was taken to reduce automobile lead emissions, by which time the average American had moderate lead poisoning.
The gun industry is now engaged in efforts similar to those employed by the chemical industry to preserve the use of lead and chlorofluorocarbons and by the tobacco industry to perpetuate adult and youth cigarette smoking.
The gun lobby wants to focus on deficiencies in mental health care and study a correlation between psychopharmaceutical use and mass murder. The assertion that only a gun provides protection against a gun will reach its conclusion when every citizen owns a gun, giving gun manufacturers a tidy windfall and a captive market.
With our liberal gun laws, the United States already has a frighteningly violent domestic culture and bloated incarceration rate. Imagine what it will be like when we all have guns. Imagine mandating all students must carry a pointy stick in school to ensure they won't be used to poke each other. Midgely took the fall for the fuel industry in 1924. Today, the U.S. public is taking the fall on behalf of the gun manufacturing industry.
Paul Adel
Clifton Park