The dust hadn't even settled in Carthage when another atrocity involving a lone armed gunman occurred, taking the lives of a dozen innocent people.

Of course, these are separate events. But are they unconnected? Certainly not. The Carthage gunman killed people he most likely did not know. The Binghamton gunman killed people he almost certainly did not know. Both gunmen slaughtered people who had no chance of escape or defense.

It is possible, even probable, that both of these gunmen would be diagnosed as deranged or temporarily insane if they were tested. We may never know about the Binghamton killer since he capped himself. But thanks to the training and courage of Cpl. Justin Garner, we may someday have that diagnosis on Robert Stewart.

But the point is they were both able to get, and keep, the guns they used despite the current "best efforts" of the states to ensure "that doesn't happen."

I hope I don't have to read a bunch of letters and columns in The Pilot or any other medium telling me that if only the patients in wheelchairs and the candidates for citizenship had been armed, these guys would never have gotten the second shot off.

On the other hand, It's been years since Virginia Tech and all the talk about paying attention to stressed-out people and "intervening" has been nothing but talk.

We've got a mess on our hands. There are a lot of stressed-out people and not very many people trained to watch for potential boil-overs. And even when one of the watchers sees something, it seems there is always a civil liberty that comes first. What are we going to do?

Bob Bramwell

Pinehurst