I have answers to some of the very reasonable questions posed by Dave Hamrick (The Citizen, May 24) regarding gun violence. Mr. Hamrick's first question was, “What is it about `gun violence' that makes it more abhorrent than knife violence, baseball bat violence, and good old-fashioned hands around the throat violence?”

The answer is, “proximity.” Physical space. Distance between perpetrator and victim. The ability to murder from 30 feet away.

If your child were attacked in school, Mr. Hamrick, would you prefer that the deviate wield a baseball bat or a loaded gun? The death tolls of schoolchildren in Littleton, Colo., Paducah, Ken., Pearl, Miss., Springfield, Ore., Jonesboro, Ark., and Flint, Mich., would not be headline news if guns had been kept out of the hands of children.

In the editorial, Mr. Hamrick, you stated that you are perfectly comfortable in the home of a friend who keeps guns, but how comfortable are you when your children play with their children? When yet another child, this one from a troubled household down the street, spends unsupervised time in that home, then launches an adolescent rage over a breakup with a girlfriend? Under the status quo in our country, very little stands between that troubled child and another preventable gun tragedy.

You were right on target in stating, “What we're really talking about in the gun debate is freedom of choice.” I have been teaching my middle-schoolers for several years, now, that with freedom comes responsibility. That with freedom to get together with friends at the mall comes responsibility to complete homework on time and help with household chores. With the freedom to drive comes the responsibility to follow the rules of the road. With the freedom to keep and bear arms comes the responsibility to keep them out of the hands of children.

One of the most common misunderstandings regarding the Million Mom March is that these moms, dads, grandparents, and siblings want to ban guns. I marched in Atlanta on Mother's Day and I can tell you firsthand that nothing could be further from the truth.

I listened intently to every speaker on the capitol steps and not one spoke of banning guns. Keep your gun, Mr. Hamrick. Responsible grown-ups have a Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But our nation's children are dying by gunshot at an unacceptable rate by any standards.

If you are a member of the NRA who believes that unsupervised children have too much access to guns, then you and I are on the same side. If you are a member of the Second Amendment Sisters and you feel you have a right to send your child to school believing that they will return home safely, then we are on the same side.

Surely, as responsible grown-ups, if we put our heads together we can come up with reasonable solutions to the crisis of children using guns to kill children.

Kim Learnard

Peachtree City

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