I appreciate the brief opinion offered in “Guns, Again – First Step: stop the killing power,” but I do not think having safer guns (e.g., magazines with fewer bullets) is a solution and it is not a certain root cause, especially when you consider the chain of events leading up to “pulling the trigger.”

To share in the abundance of pro-gun analogies floating around in social media, policy requiring safer guns is tantamount to saying we should establish policy requiring duller knives. If you truly evaluate the chain of events leading up to the Newton, Conn., shootings, I’m sure you will find far more valuable information about causes/contributing factors to the murders than merely access to a gun, even if it has been a safer gun.

Each step closer to removing access to rights – including gun rights – is more energy removed from finding the root(s) of the problem. Leave access to gun rights up to the states.

The long-term health damage caused by marijuana use (e.g., lung cancer, addiction, social consequences, etc.), enhanced by its legalization on Dec. 6, will kill many more people than the users of safer guns ever will.

John Allen, Sammamish