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Mr, Joseph Wythe, in his letter of Dec. 17, continues his assault on the rights of his fellow Americans. And now he is shamelessly trying to use his service in World War II to justify it. I am sorry, Mr. Wythe, but your former time in the military does not now give you the right to destroy the very rights you were supposed to be defending 70 years ago. Neither does it give you the right to lie to further your socialist cause. To claim America has an average of slightly more than one mass shooting per day is fake news even CNN probably wouldn’t air.

And the facts still remain, Mr. Wythe, that guns are used far more times in self-defense and for good in America than bad. Just ask the approximately 65,000 Americans each year who are still around because they had a firearm to protect them. I’d say 65,000 is a pretty good argument for gun rights, since there are only about 11,000 successful homicides in this country every year (most occurring where people aren’t allowed to carry for self-defense) and only a few hundred accidental gun deaths.

You keep trying to hammer home the mass shooting theme, because it is an emotional button that is easy to push, but the fact still remains that mass shootings are a rare phenomenon causing only an average of 50 deaths per year in this country.

To put this in perspective, 11 children die each year from accidents from toys, and approximately 2,500 people die each year from drowning! So why aren’t you trying to ban toys and water sports?

SAMUEL HOGUE

Sandpoint