On July 25, you quoted a neighbor of the bereaved family in Oakland who had lost their child to an accidental discharge of a shotgun.

The neighbor said ‘it’s really sad – you don’t expect stuff like that to happen.”

With every sympathy for the family who has lost their child, I can only say: Really? Why wouldn’t someone expect “stuff” like that to happen? It seems to me exactly what you would expect to happen when leaving a loaded gun in an unlocked closet in a house full of children.

You wouldn’t expect this to happen? Why ever not?

The rest of the world looks on in amazement as Americans slaughter each other with legal weaponry, deliberately or accidentally. We need a law now which legislates that any gun kept in a home be kept unloaded and under lock and key.

Only then could you say you don’t expect things like that to happen.

Deborah F. Coward

South Portland