The poet John Donne wrote, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” I consider it a personal attack when the lives of younger generations are snuffed out by assault weapons.
House Speaker Paul Ryan needs to be informed that it’s past time to speak up. I want the teens of Parkland, Florida, and others to know that they have my support in protesting the ability of the public to buy assault weapons. You don’t take assault weapons on a hunting trip; they belong in the military.
Assault weapons should be banned now! Background checks are not enough. Blaming mental illness doesn’t cut it. So let’s come together and have the same courage as these teens, joining them by clearly stating it’s time to withhold our support of any legislator willing to take money from the NRA.
Katherine Barnett
Paso Robles
This article appears in Mar 1-11, 2018.
While I agree that we do need to ACTUALLY TAKE ACTION to protect our children while they attend school, we need to take a shotgun approach to fixing it and not over-react and implement controls that won’t actually do much. All of the mass-shooters were living in single-mother homes, do you think that may have something to do with it? Not blaming the mothers, who are busy working and trying to support their family. Maybe we should actually start a program where single mothers (and fathers) can reach out for help in raising their children vs. just providing them with financial subsidies. I believe the easiest fix we have is to actually reconnect people in their communities so everyone feels valued, cared for, they don’t want to kill one another. I’d like to hear some thoughts about that. Thanks.
Oh, and, to my knowledge, they all have security guards that have guns, so I guess to some degree THEY ALL support the NRA and the 2nd Amendment.