Guns are lethal weapons. Cars, at times, can be lethal weapons. So shouldn’t guns be regulated like cars?

It’s true that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But we can’t fix morals with laws.

I have been labeled a “bleeding heart” by my NRA disciples and friends when I speak out for gun control.

I agree wholeheartedly. Guilty as charged. I am most certainly a bleeding heart, for my heart bleeds for the children who have been murdered, for their grieving and traumatized schoolmates, families, and communities, and for our whole country, where massacres have become an expected part of our lives, considered preferable to any kind of gun control.

The justifying argument of the gun lobby is the tired phrase “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Of course, that is true: The deeper problem as a moral one. But we recognize that changing the morality of our people by civil laws is unrealistic.

Legislating the heart by civil law is seldom if ever possible. It is true that God’s law dictates attitudes of the heart, for God’s law, which protects the life of all, is written in Scripture and in the heart of each person. But enforcing God’s law by civil legislation is often not possible, because civil law cannot reach the interior of the person. The best we can do with our civil laws is to regulate exterior practice, as we do regarding the use of the automobile, which, like guns, can be lethal.

There are about as many deaths each year in the U.S. from automobile accidents as there are from firearms. Without traffic laws, the automobile would cause even more deaths. As with guns, cars are not the problem. The drivers are usually the problem.

As a society, we do not suggest that traffic be unregulated to protect the freedom of all. We must regulate the use of cars and other types of motor vehicles to protect the right to life of all of us. These regulations involve age, type of vehicle, health of drivers, and zone restrictions. We accept these regulations as reasonable limitations to our personal freedom.

In a similar way, to protect our right to life, we need to regulate gun use.

To the hunters, I agree that guns can bring good food on our tables. But we don’t shoot a rabbit, squirrel, or pheasant with an assault weapon. What would be left of it to put on the table if we shot a rabbit with an assault weapon? Hunting, too, requires sensible use of guns.

— Phyllis Morris

Clinton, Iowa