Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editorials

Common sense gun policy reforms for the United States

BMJ 2012; 345 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8672 (Published 21 December 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e8672

Rapid Response:

Re: Common sense gun policy reforms for the United States

Guns are an important part of American history, particularly in stories about “cowboys and Indians”. Sadly, these stories falsely portray cowboys, settlers, soldiers, and guns as good, but Native Americans, tribes, teepees, and bows-and-arrows as bad. Of course, these stories cover up the lies and exploitation perpetrated by a young, exuberant America that didn’t understand or practice civil rights. To be fair to America, neither did the rest of the world. Nevertheless, these self-serving stories are canards that can be dispelled by the insightful words of Sioux Chief Sitting Bull who aptly said about Americans, “The love of possessions is a disease with them...If you have one honest man in Washington, send him here and I will talk to him."

Competing interests: No competing interests

28 December 2012
Hugh Mann
Physician
Retired
Eagle Rock, MO, USA