Editorials / Opinion

Shooter should have been prosecuted earlier

Aaron Alexis poses for a mug shot after being arrested on Sept. 4, 2010 for discharging a firearm inside city limits. [Fort Worth Police Department via Getty Images]

In 2004, Aaron Alexis, the D.C. shooter, fired off his gun in Seattle in a fit of anger. [“D.C. killer shot out tires here in 2004,” page one, Sept. 17.]

For some strange and negligent reason, he was not prosecuted. In 2010, he “accidentally” fired a gun in his apartment in Texas. His right to own firearms was not taken away, apparently.

Yesterday, he killed and wounded many people. This is a predictable outcome. We cannot allow people who have extreme anger issues, who have demonstrated their inability to safely handle firearms, to continue to possess them.

We have the D.C. victims’ blood on our hands. Shame.

Pete Rogerson, Seattle

Background checks should be instantaneous

Instantaneous background checks during gun purchases is a good idea, but I will not support the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s (WALFGUR) petition to require it for many private transfers. [“Advocates unveil gun background-check initiative,” NW Wednesday, June 12]

Their initiative is not about background checks. It’s about increasing the waiting period for purchasing a firearm from five to 10 days. That is about gun control, not about background checks.

According to WALFGUR’s own website, it only takes 90 seconds to perform these checks. So why wait 10 days?

As a gun owner, this is what drives me crazy about universal background checks. I like the idea, but gun-control advocates use the issue to impose more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners, restrictions that have nothing to do with background checks.

This is 2013. We can do these background checks instantly. I hope that WALFGUR takes back its initiative and submits a new one that implements instantaneous background checks.

That is what the voters want.

Dave Orvis, Edmonds