Navy Yard Shooting: Gun Laws, Enforcement Failures and More Issues Rile Readers

By Greg Hambrick

The Washington Navy Yard shootings left 12 people dead, as well as gunman Aaron Alexis.

The questions left following the Sept. 16 tragedy are the same ones we've faced again and again in the last few years regarding gun control and mental health.

"Where is the outrage?" asked Virginia Delegate Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum, a Patch blogger.

Over the weekend, we posed that question to our Patch readers across the region and received strong opinions.

Tell us what you think of existing gun control laws and what should be done to prevent these tragedies. Use the comment section at the bottom of this article.

"MC" said the issue is about people, not guns: "'Our' government took away mental health care and put a lot of these people out in the streets. When someone is thought to be 'off their rocker,' no one has anywhere to go to report it BEFORE something major happens."

Woodbridge resident Amanda Ross pointed out that a teenager died in a daytime stabbing last month. "Where is the outrage on knives or just murder in general?" she asked. 

Finally, Sherri Isbister wondered if things would have ended differently at the Navy Yard if there were more armed civilians. "How is it fair that an outsider can bring a weapon into the workplace where unarmed people are working? Something has to give here," she wrote.

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