In his opinion piece, Miller Hudson brags about measures Colorado adopted to reduce gun violence – such as universal background checks, the high-capacity magazine ban, and the red flag law – to give the impression that those laws reduced gun violence (“HUDSON | Put all on hold till gun control passage,” May 30). The opposite is true. In the past decade since Colorado enacted these “common-sense” gun laws, gun homicides have more than doubled and gun suicides increased more than 30%. That’s progress?

What “common-sense” gun laws do is give cover to authorities when they fail in their duty to protect the public. Despite the red flag law, the City of Denver shrugged off warnings about the tattoo parlor shooter and did nothing to stop that tragedy. The Boulder shooter had a history of violence and a run-in with the police and nothing was done to flag his criminal record, which would’ve kept him from buying the murder weapon. Earlier, the Aurora Theater shooter was treated by the best psychiatrists in Colorado and they let him slip through their hands.

Elsewhere, why didn’t Connecticut police use their red flag law to prevent the Sandy Hook massacre? Australia is lauded as a model for gun violence prevention, ignoring that they don’t have our problems with gangs and drug trafficking. Mexico has stricter gun laws than Australia and three times our violent crime and rate of homicide.

Gun control laws are passed on the promise of preventing gun violence, and when they prove useless, the solution is always more useless gun laws.

Mario Acevedo

Denver