I am writing in response to your report on Gabrielle Giffords’ recent visit to Portland, headlined “Former U.S. Rep. Giffords: Gun laws fail to protect women” (Oct. 15). To be sure, this is true, but Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck is probably correct as well when he observes, “Domestic violence is really the core of this conversation …” And more broadly again, the tendency to use violence in our culture to resolve conflicts is rampant. So, what to do?

There is zero evidence that what we are doing to combat domestic violence is the best possible thing to be doing. And the issue of when and how to use violence in a society like ours is so fraught with emotion that it is difficult to talk rationally about it.

Maybe we have to start over. Maybe we have to re-examine what we are doing and wonder together about violence and how best to minimize its negative impact on children, women and the elderly, who are the next population waiting in the wings to feel the sting.

You might think that the university would be the best place to start such a discussion, but academia might be reluctant to appear soft on things like guns and power.

Maybe the place to start is in the first few grades, where the students in their naivete say, “Of course we don’t hit, and of course we share.” I can almost see the posters emerging from such “study groups.”

James Tierney

Retired employee of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services

Auburn

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