Readers have much to say about the school shootings at Parkland, elsewhere
More than a month after the tragic Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Palm Beach Post readers continue to flood us with letters expressing their thoughts on the reality of gun violence.
The Post is running as many letters as space allows on today’s Opinion pages. More can found online at www.mypalmbeachpost.com/opinion.
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I am writing this so that the Parkland killings are not forgotten. I am a 76-year-old woman who has worked with children her entire life, from 3-year-olds to 6-year-olds, to law students at a university.
Sadly, for years I have watched the senseless mass murder of children and adults, and for the first week after the killings, it is big news. And then it dies down, nothing is done. How many children have to die before our government gets off their backsides and protects them? How many?
Iamamomanda granny, I love my family and I love the young people who passed through my life. I cannot sit back and wait for someone else to make this evil go away.
Remember Columbine, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, others, and now Parkland. The politicians offered thoughts and prayers and did nothing. Would they do something if their child was a casualty? Based on past history, I don’t think so.
I am asking moms, dads and children to write a letter every week and send it to whatever newspaper you read and tell them don’t let this slide.
This is an election year. Your vote is your power. Don’t sit back and think someone else will vote for you. Your vote may be the one to win the security of your child and your neighbor’s child,
If we keep this alive, our government may have the guts to hear, listen and do something.
SUE KAUFMAN, BOCA RATON
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Your March 22 Section B carries no less than six gun-related stories.
Understandably, single firearm events attract less attention than one mass killing. But we should be aware that the daily average of fatal shootings in the U.S. is more than five times 17. Discounting suicides, that is the close equivalence of two Parkland sized homicides per day!
Understandably, discussions since Feb. 14 have focused on the security of school premises with scant attention to school buses, sports fields, stadiums, theaters, churches, synagogues, mosques, any place where people are gathered together — all vulnerable.
In a country awash in weapons, including mass killers, it is far too late for future restrictions like enhanced background checks, raising buyers’ ages, mental assessments, etc., to be significantly effective. Crazies will get access to the millions of AR-15s already out there and strike again, enabling the NRA to proclaim that gun controls fail.
Guns are more American than apple pies. A 27-word document drafted in 1791 is more sacrosanct than the lives of our 21st-century children. HORACE HONE, WEST PALM BEACH
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All across the country, students wasted their time demonstrating to get the attention of Congress so gun control could be enacted to make schools safe.
Their efforts were misdirected because Congress reacts more from what the special-interest lobbies want than what the people want.
If Congress can be bought, then is there an answer? Right now, lobbies work for minority interests, but that doesn’t mean a lobby can’t work for the majority.
JAMES HAMLIN, JUPITER
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The tragedy at the Broward school is just the tip of the iceberg. Far too many children are being shot in cities across America every day.
For instance, since September 2011, 167 children under 17 have been killed in shootings and 1,607 children have been shot. That is only in Chicago. Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, just to point out a few.
This must stop. Whatever it takes must be done. EUGENE ASH, LAKE WORTH
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I feel I need to voice my opinion regarding the Parkland shooting and Officer Scot Peterson.
I cannot believe how everyone is making this officer a scapegoat. For him to run into the school, without body armor, not knowing where the gunman is, would be suicidal and accomplish nothing but having one more added to the body count. A handgun against an AR-15 is practically useless.
If the officer had run in and found the gunman and shot at him, he would have to be very close to make sure he hit his target. If he did not hit his target, the gunman could get off 30 or more rounds before the officer could pull the trigger again, and the gunman does not have to be a good shot. All he has to do is spray shoot in the officer’s direction. one or more bullets is bound to hit the officer.
Even heavily armed, body-armored SWAT teams don’t rush in blindly and alone.
It is strange that all the kids guessed who the shooter was, without even seeing him. A lot of people knew he had serious problems. The big problem was that he was allowed to keep his guns, especially an AR-15.
He could not have done this with a handgun. You don’t need to be a crack shot with an AR-15. All you have to do is shoot many rounds in the general direction of people and you will have many victims.
I worked in law enforcement and I had to train at the firing range every year. Under the best of circumstances, it’s not that easy to hit your target, and very few people are or can be, crack shots.
I’m with Parkland. Ban all assault weapons. FRANCES BIAFOREGAILFOIL, OKEECHOBEE
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While admiring the actions of school children protesting for common-sense gun control, I couldn’t help making the comparison of the Republican Congress to a scene from the movie “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
In the scene, Harry is hospitalized for an injured arm and given a potion to grow bones. I wonder if such a potion could be used on the Republican Congress to grow a spine?