In response to Mary Benson’s letter to the editor (Herald, Jan. 18), we can fight tyranny of guns.

Have you ever stopped to think guns are not a new thing? Guns have been around since the early 1800’s – but yet school shootings are quite new, extremely violent gaming systems are new, parents not spending quality time with their children is new. A Kaiser study found kids spend seven hours and 38 minutes a day watching television and playing games. Many of the games kids play today encourage them to shoot and kill as many “bad guys” as quickly as they can to gain the maximum score and move on to the next level to be hailed a hero. Kids who spend several hours a day gaming do not understand the difference between reality and fantasy. They spend so much time gaming, it becomes their reality. I believe they honestly feel there is nothing wrong with shooting someone because it is OK to do so in their game.

My mom and dad had children in their home for 40 consecutive years in which loaded guns were always left out in the open, and positively never once did any one of us nor any of our children ever touch a gun with any malicious intent. We were all taught at a very young age what guns were and what they did and were taught the proper safety measures for handling them ­– and to respect them. We were also raised by parents who required you to be home and at the dinner table every night for a family meal. They also knew where we were going, what we were doing and who we were hanging with.

If parents would invest as much time in their kids as they do their jobs and their material possessions, then kids wouldn’t need to spend so much time gaming, and we wouldn’t have to wonder why they take a gun into schools and try and kill their classmates – just like back in the day when I was growing up.

Jamie Halls

Bayfield