The new Durango city ordinance that prohibits firearms and other deadly weapons is one that will not – and cannot – achieve the assumed goal of public safety in public buildings or anywhere else. Does the City Council or anyone believe that criminals and crazies care about this new law?

The reality is that anyone with deadly criminal intent welcomes such laws and relishes the knowledge that when they execute their evil deeds, there will be no one there to oppose them. Cite all the gun violence stats you want but they do not answer the root causes of criminal violence. You can pass absolute gun bans in any locale and they will do nothing to halt the violence.

And just about anything can be a “deadly” weapon, including hammers, screwdrivers, hypodermic needles. Anything. Are you going to make people strip down to bare skin as they enter a public building to make sure they don’t have a “deadly” weapon?

You really want to reduce or even eliminate criminal violence? Then as a community, let’s renew our efforts to treat mental illness at its roots. Let’s support the family unit so that children growing up will have behavioral standards that help them to respect life and freedom of all.

Don’t tell me that gun control laws are doing something to control criminal violence because they do not and cannot.

Charles W. Thompson

Lewis