Flowers, messages, balloons, stuffed animals, toys and other items on May 31 were left by mourners commemorating the students and teachers of the Robb Elementary School’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)

Police officer Patrick Skinner’s June 5 Outlook essay, “Our ‘best case scenario’ in school shootings is badly misguided,” correctly pointed out the main cause of murders in the United States is the number of guns on the street. However, he should have added that we have incredibly strong evidence for this: the number of murders in almost every other wealthy developed country.

The gun-homicide rate per 100,000 people in the United States is about four, while for 18 other countries (including Canada, Britain, France and Japan) the number is less than 0.5. For Britain, it’s 0.04!

The big difference is those countries restrict gun ownership and we don’t. This is the statistic gun-safety advocates should focus on because it puts to a lie the need for better mental health care and similar ideas for reducing gun murders.

Of course, if right-wing gun elites want to assert that Americans are just plain crazier than the rest of the world, they should put that on their bumper stickers.

Philip S. Church, Fairfax

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/listen-police-common-sense-gun-reforms/