Paul S. Bachorik (“Another View: For law-abiding Americans, more gun laws unnecessary,” July 5) agrees to current gun permit laws and prefers open carry only where it could “avoid provoking fear,” but he doesn’t believe any more gun laws are needed.

For greater discussion and understanding, several missing factual links need to be examined.

• State police Maj. Chris Grotton said the current concealed weapons permit system needed fixing, which, he believed, was costly; therefore, he favored L.D. 652.

Does it affect his opinion that it’s now known that L.D. 652 will cost taxpayers $200,000 per year minimum and an estimated $767,000 over two years?

• Is there a difference between crime rates and gun death rates? The answer is decidedly yes. Remember: Gun deaths are often accidental. So why didn’t the Legislature consider not only Maine’s low crime rate but also the cost of life in higher gun-ownership states?

• Weaker gun-violence prevention laws result in higher gun ownership and higher rates of death from gun injuries. According to the Violence Policy Center, the key is in the number of guns per capita.

In 2011, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Wyoming and Montana, with higher gun-ownership rates, had the highest gun death rates.

States with lower gun-ownership rates – Rhode Island, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey – had the lowest gun death rates. The number of gun deaths is 10.4 per 100,000 in the U.S., 0.86 in Australia and 0.23 in the U.K.

Maine had 10 deaths per 100,000 – lower than the five highest states (16.74 to 18.91), but a lot higher than the five lowest states (3.14 to 5.46). Personally, I’d want lower death rates in Maine.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb

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