To the editor:

Seventeen people massacred in Parkland, Florida, by a 19-year-old with a military-style assault weapon. He wasn’t old enough to buy a beer, but he had no problem buying the weapon of choice for mass murderers. Does that seem right to you?

Will it be different this time?

I’m not holding my breath. The NRA, those who profit from guns, and the cowardly politicians who take their orders from them, have a clear strategy on how to deal with these gun mass murders. Tell the public to mourn and pray, but it is much too soon to actually do anything. Above all, count on the public’s short attention span to lose interest once it’s out of the headlines. It’s worked every time in the past. Why not this time?

But it’s all about mental illness, not about guns, they say. What a ruse! The U.S. gun death rates are off the charts when compared with every other developed country in the world. There is no evidence to support the proposition that rates of mental illness are so much higher in this country than in comparable countries that that would explain the much higher gun death rate here. Conclusion: it’s the gun and the gun culture, stupid!

The insincerity of the fellow in the White House and his acolytes is obvious. While they talk of mental health as the answer, they are systematically cutting funding for mental health research and treatment. Their attack on Obamacare is an attack on all of those who were able to get their needed mental health care under its provisions.

Until we who favor sensible gun control (and we are a clear majority) hold politicians accountable on this issue, things can’t get better. Check their record and vote to make a difference.

John H. Burns

Willmar, formerly of Marshall