Dear Editor:

My name is Quentin R. Bufogle. I'm an American writer and novelist. I was honored by the fact that you quoted me in a recent IRISH INDEPENDENT editorial (7-9-16) regarding racial tension and gun violence in the U.S. I wonder if I might trouble you for a favor? ...

I'm calling (actually, begging) for an intervention of international proportions. Ireland, Britain, Australia, France, Germany -- you all need to sit us down and calmly but resolutely explain that when it comes to the issue of guns, AMERICA has lost its collective mind. Please, don't spare our feelings. We've really lost it. We need someone far removed from the insanity (with no dog in the fight) who can explain to us that 13,000 gun-related deaths each year is not the norm -- not the price that must be paid for liberty; for living without fear of the yoke of some tyrannical, shadow government which might sprout from a pod even as we sleep (land of the free; home of the paranoid).

Five police officers killed, nine other individuals wounded, mere blocks from the very spot where one of our most beloved presidents was assassinated with a mail-order firearm purchased without a background check. And yet with all the killing, all the carnage, it's only for our guns that we fear. Please, you need to explain to us that there's no bogeyman hiding under the bed waiting to confiscate our semi-automatic weapons. Our guns are safe. It's "we the people" who are in imminent peril ...

Sincerely,

Quentin R. Bufogle


**Author's Note** The IRISH INDEPENDENT is the largest-selling daily newspaper in Ireland.


www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/...