Readers Write: Guns and the mass shootings in Ohio and Texas

We are making the deliberate choice to allow mass shootings to keep happening ("Carnage numbs nation," front page, Aug. 5).

We have weighed and measured the value of human life against our right to possess and use deadly weapons, and we have decided that it is acceptable for schoolchildren, people in shopping centers, concertgoers, and people just out for a drink and a good time to be murdered. We've decided that our right to bear arms is worth more than the lives of our citizens.

I admit this may not be an accurate reflection of the feelings of most Americans on the subject, but if that is the case, then the only conclusion is that most Americans have allowed a minority to make their choices for them.

Let's be honest with ourselves for a change: Assault weapons are not home-defense tools. They are not hunting tools. They are machines designed to murder as many humans in as short a span of time as possible, and they have no business on our streets.

When the shooting at the New Zealand mosque took place, it took lawmakers there 72 hours to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. This suggests that perhaps it is time for Americans to admit that we have a problem, that we are, in fact, addicted to our weapons (and I am using the word "addicted" deliberately), and to prove to ourselves that we are stronger than that. That we are not too proud to learn by example. We can. It is a choice.

To my fellow Americans and our elected lawmakers, I have this message: Make. It. Stop. Now.

"Bloodshed defines the U.S." should have been the headline on Aug. 5, 2019. It seems sadly and tragically accurate in the context of continued mass murders and the continued failure to address and legislate reasonable gun control.

If gun violence is a public health crisis, then another looming public health crisis is our acceptance of gun violence as the new normal.

In the wake of such terror, the need to shield oneself psychologically is intense.

But we're shielding ourselves with a lie. Nearly 40,000 people are fatally shot in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our state and national leadership can make us safer — in fact and not just in our imaginations — by passing known, effective gun safety laws, including "red flag" protection orders, background checks and the lapsed federal ban on assault weapons.

While we are lucky to have two gun-sense senators representing Minnesota, we need to support their efforts with action. Contact Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. Tell them we won't wait any longer for Sen. Mitch McConnell to pass gun safety legislation.

Amid this now regular, if much bigger, national tragedy of mass shootings with automatic weapons, it is more than a simple coincidence that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fractured his shoulder over the same weekend. He clearly cannot bear the proverbial weight on his shoulders of the responsibility to stop these massacres. He has exercised his power since taking control of the Senate to undermine a core sensibility of the U.S. Constitution by the craven, political manipulation of the Supreme Court (and lower court) nominations, but he will not stand up to pass sensible, moderate gun control legislation.

It is an utter moral failure.

There have been 22 mass shootings (defined as four or more people killed, not including the shooter, in a single episode) in the U.S. this year.

Praise the bravery of the first responders — check. Offer thoughts and prayers — check. Lower flags to half-staff — check. Have a candlelight vigil — check. Enter a period of mourning — check. Blame the shooter's mental health — check. "It's too early to politicize this act" — check.

Did I miss anything?

As our country is once again in shock and grief over the mass shootings, many are shouting that gun control is the only answer. Yes, there definitely needs to be better control of who is allowed to purchase a gun, including background checks. We can place armed policemen in schools, shopping centers and other public places. But even if all the above is accomplished, would it prevent these tragedies from happening?

Logic as well as history tells us no. If we as a nation made it illegal for our citizens to own a gun, the only ones owning one would be the criminals and those who are mentally deranged.

We need to look deeper to find what causes these mass killings and how to stop them. These deeds originate in the hearts and minds of people who have stored up anger and disillusionment with life. We cannot make people moral by legislation. We, meaning every American citizen, need to be on the watch for unhappy, angry, disillusioned people in the part of the world that we live and breathe in. We need to teach our children to watch for fellow students who are loners and to befriend the unfriendly, include them in their groups, help them to overcome what is causing them to act the way they do. Those of you in the workforce need to do the same. For those of you who, for one reason or another, have discarded the Bible and God from your lives, I challenge you to try implementing this solution. Nothing else is working.

I am weary of seeing our nation's flags flown at half-staff. The recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio have again caused us to lower our flags in mourning.

I have a suggestion: Let's leave the flags at half-staff until something good happens, whether it's the end of a trade war, a soccer championship, or a new president. I'm sure the maintenance staff that raise and lower flags across our great nation could use the rest.

Fire has three essential components: fuel, oxygen and heat. Remove any of the components, and fire prevention is assured.

Mass shootings have three essential components: a large gathering of people, a madman and a weapon. Large gatherings are an indispensable feature of any society. There is no workable screening process for madmen without stifling free speech and/or confining massive numbers of nondangerous citizens. This leaves the meaningful regulation of weapons as the only available tool to prevent mass murders throughout our country.

I have no interest in limiting the ownership of guns for sport or self-protection. I won't enter the debate of what constitutes an "assault rifle," but for my purposes we can go with any gun that does not require manual reloading after six shots. The public has no legitimate interest in owning such weapons, and six shots are enough to fend off any home intrusion that I've ever seen reported. It is preposterous to suggest that our Founding Fathers sought to protect individuals' unregulated right to own the weapons of mass destruction used over the past weekend. When the Constitution was written, a state-of-the-art gun could fire one inaccurate round.

Meaningful gun control requires control of guns. Period. Whatever other issues fill your political agenda, please make it abundantly clear that you will not vote for anyone who doesn't support a ban on individual ownership of assault weapons.

I invite you to reread this letter in the near future, after the next tragic shooting.

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