Dear Editor:

Since 1992, our government has been trying to do away with our second amendment right to own and bear arms. The places that have the most restrictions on guns — Chicago, New York, California, etc. — have the highest number of gun deaths. All deaths are terrible, but let’s look at the big picture (drugs, not guns).

The United States of America has around 32,000 gun deaths per year.

More than 50 percent of these so-called gun deaths are drug related — in other words, these deaths are caused by drugs, not guns.

Florida Gov. Chris Christy stated on WKRG Channel 5 News on Oct. 29, at 9:30 a.m., that 175 people a day, or 63,875 a year, are dying from drug over doses.

If you take the 16,000 — that should be counted as drug deaths — then you have five times more deaths by drugs than by guns.

There are many other ways that drugs cause deaths. There are over 44,000 deaths that happen by suicide. From my experience as a military policeman in San Francisco, I would guess that almost all are drug related.

Another way that takes hundreds of thousands of lives is automobile related. One can hardly read a paper or listen to a news channel to hear of automobile deaths within a 50-mile radius. Just think of the many thousands that are killed across our nation each day. Many of these deaths are caused by drugs.

Looking at the above paragraphs, the ratio of drugs to guns is now close to 15:1 — 15 drug deaths compared to every gun death. My question is why have the past three presidents and our legislative branch ignored drug deaths?

There are many more deaths that occur because of drugs — knives, ball bas, infants that are born addicted to drugs and die before they should, drugs being used at work sites causing deaths, boat accidents, air craft, train wrecks, drug use in combat causes many deaths and the list goes on and on. The ratio of deaths caused by drugs compared to those caused by guns could now be as high as 50:1.

President Donald Trump is getting involved with our drug problem. A person can cut off the tail of a rattlesnake and the snake can still bite and kill you. Building treatment centers to curb the traffic and sell of drugs is like cutting off the tail of a snake. The problem continues to grow. To cut off the head of the snake is to control our borders and stop the flow of illegal drugs into our country.

Another thing I don’t understand is why the news media really condemned Trump for pardoning Sheriff Joe. He pardoned one man in the past eight months.

President Barack Obama pardoned over 1,700, most were drug dealers and some murderers.

I would like to know how many of them are selling drugs to our people? How many deaths have they caused since they were released? How many of our children will die before our congress wakes up from their sleep and realize that it is drugs that must be stopped quickly. Why did Obama release so many? He released more than the last eight presidents combined and our biased news media never asked why?

Leon Chavers

7221 Circle Rd.

Walnut Hill, Fla. 32568-5329