Griffin doesn’t understand U.S. gun problem; likely never will

Ken Griffin appears to be just fine adding to his $24 billion net worth promoting investment in gun manufacturers that fuel America’s 38,000 annual gun deaths (Sun Times Letter 'Bad Polices', March 1). Of that, 24,000 are suicides, 13,000 murders, with just a thousand accidental shooting deaths. This utterly senseless carnage only occurs in America where the industry uses a portion of its $13 billion annual revenue to buy off Congress and state legislators from enacting and enforcing any sensible gun regulation.

But to Griffin such calls for pushback, including disinvestment in the gun industry, are simply cancel culture and virtue signaling preventing peaceful citizens from going bird hunting like his grandmother. Is Griffin concerned such disinvestment might drop his net worth to $23 billion?

Griffin then makes the ludicrous charge that failure to prosecute criminals, support police and progressive left legislation favoring criminals is the root cause of crime, without an iota of evidence. These are conservative memes preventing any sensible debate about stemming the 400,000,000 guns, of which several million are here in Chicago, within easy reach of vulnerable use by rootless, immature teens and hardened criminals.

The real flaw in Griffin’s concern for reducing crime? He funnels tens of millions of his wealth supporting city and statewide candidates dedicated to cutting society’s safety net, keeping the large pockets of hopelessness and poverty a cauldron of violence, simply to reduce taxes on his privileged class, including himself.

For 'bad policies', Ken Griffin need only look in his mirror.