Letter: Stricter gun laws are needed

I’m responding to the Associated Press story “Effort would ban enforcing gun laws” (April 24, The Columbian).

The Second Amendment should be revised. Gun laws must be enforced more and schools need better protection.

The Second Amendment was created in 1791 when they didn’t have the AR-15, AK-47, light machine gun, handgun, magazine or M16. They had single-shot firearms, which were much less dangerous.

This isn’t the 1700s, this is the 21st century; firearms are more sophisticated and lethal. In the April 24 story, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson was quoted as writing, “I support and defend the Second Amendment and oppose IP 43.” He said he believes every law-abiding citizen who wants to legally own a firearm should do so.

This hurts me as a student. I disagree strongly. No one should have such easy access to a gun. We need more background checks, more security procedures, and, above all, more gun laws on how old you need to be, and to know if a person is trustworthy. Nelson is wrong. If you were to give a gun to a person who hasn’t owned one or been properly trained, it could lead to disaster as we have seen again and again.