Common sense isn’t always common

I wish the recent writer had been more specific with her comment about “common-sense gun laws.” She attacks what she calls “the elephant in the room” but doesn’t explain how she’s going to get rid of it.

We have in this country some of the strictest gun laws in existence. New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago are examples of places where these strict gun laws exist and haven’t always kept unspeakable acts from occurring.

From all the reports I have seen, the gunman at the Alexandria, Va., site bought his guns legally. Yes, people who knew him thought he was a little “off-center” but there did not appear to be any true mental illness present and if this is what the writer was referring to as common-sense gun laws (prohibiting mentally ill from purchasing guns), it needs to be understood that the average gun store employee is not capable of judging whether a person is mentally ill or not. A lot of mentally ill people look, act, and sound perfectly normal.

What is common sense to one person may not be common sense to another. One lesson I have learned in my almost 80 years on this planet is common sense is not always common — it is often quite rare.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Common sense isn’t always common."