Editor:

During a candidates forum in Charlottesville, the two primary candidates for the U.S. 5th District seat, Sen. Tom Garrett (R) and Jane Dittmar (D) gave the following (excerpted) responses about gun violence:

GARRETT: “…Long guns, for example, what some people would brand ‘assault weapons,’ I think you’re four times more likely to be killed with a knife (and) twice as likely … by hands or feet … So, ultimately the problem, I don’t think, is guns. The problem is violence … I don’t think vilifying an object, an inanimate object, is necessarily the solution.”

DITTMAR: “We need to have universal background checks. We need to make sure people who shouldn’t own guns are not allowed to buy them. Now … it’s not as if we are going to be going out and getting those guns, but … we do not want to sell to people who have certain types of mental illness, a proclivity towards violence, particularly under protective orders, and anybody who we’ve identified as a terrorist.”

In June, a man used an assault-style rifle in the packed Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.,  killing 49 people and wounding more.

Garrett obviously does not understand: The weapon is part of the violence.

Jeannine “J.J.” Towler

Charlottesville