I have been in the Security-Loss Prevention profession for over 46 years. During this tenure I have had the opportunity to teach many classes on gun violence prevention. The subject matter and need has never been as compelling and as urgent as it is today. I reference at times a July 1989 cover story from Time magazine in which they ran a landmark story of “Death by Gun,” which covered one week of gun fatalities—460 people-in the United States. The story included a wrenching 28-page portfolio and bio of all 460 victims. At the end of the story the authors asked how a civilized nation could allow such sustained slaughter to endure.
This Time magazine article was written over 32 years ago. And the subsequent weekly death by gun onslaught has actually increased and gotten far worse. Today, at least 124 people will die from gun violence. This includes 61-plus suicides and five to 10 children a day. And this tally does not include the hundreds who survive their wounds but are crippled or maimed for life. The problem and challenge facing all of us is that we are entering a perfect storm where we will see unprecedented levels and increases in gun violence unless reasoned and sane and practical measures are taken to stem and mitigate the slaughter that has cast such a dark cloud over the nation. The perfect storm includes both a historic and unprecedented surge of mental illness among the young and record numbers of depression among adults. The suicide by gun tragedy will only increase to numbers unimaginable. Add to this the damning political polarization that has engulfed the nation and the increase of hate groups coast to coast and we are facing a domestic terror threat that the Department of Homeland Security regards as our number one threat. And finally look at the unprecedented spike in gun sales nation wide-and the lethal weaponry being sold.
There is a way out of this madness and tragedy. Reasoned proposals include a total ban on all assault rifles and universal background checks. We should also pursue weapon buybacks from citizens both on a state and federal level, where weapons are bought back and destroyed. And we need to look at teaching all children and teens at the elementary, middle and high school levels conflict resolution and verbal de-escalation. “Anger is a letter short of danger” resonates when reviewing the countless and preventable gun tragedies we see daily. The July 1989 issue of TIME magazine that chronicles just one week of death by gun is as powerful today as the time when it first appeared. We have seen the problem get increasingly worse. The situation today is dire and unless people act with conviction and pragmatic solutions we will be entering into an era of unspeakable gun violence that actually eclipses the decades of carnage that we have had to endure. The time to act is now.
JIM SAWYER, Edmonds, Wash.
Amid all the acrimony and hand-wringing about who shouldn’t have guns, everyone is missing an obvious answer. Animal cruelty, in the sense of deliberate cruelty, in the sense of deliberate abuse or torture of a dog or cat, is known to be a loud red flag of worse crime to come, whether mass shootings or wife/girlfriend killings. The Uvalde killer abused cats for fun and posted this activity online. The Las Vegas hotel shooter was seen by several of his fellow citizens to be punching his dog. Studies have shown numerous numerous similar examples. It would be well worth the taxpayers’ money and law enforcement’s time to move animal abuse crime to the front burner.
Is there a holdup? Yes, it’s that animal abuse crime is a misdemeanor. Law enforcement officers aren’t very interested in misdemeanors. if they could bag a felony by busting animal abuse, they’d be a lot more interested. So here’s what we do: We make violent animal abuse a felony in all 50 states and the federal criminal code. And then use these powers to start rounding these guys up. You know for a certainty that these are bad guys. No need for mind-reading guessing games.
MARIA ROSE, Indianapolis, Ind.
It seems that no matter how many gun massacres occur, or how horrendous the details, the Republican leadership remains unaffected. But there was one Republican, a very conservative one in fact, who had a change of heart on the gun issue. His name was James G. Brady. People of a certain age will remember what happened to him to cause his reversal. I do not savor posing the following question for fear of being misunderstood. But is that what it will take?
STEVEN Z. ROSENZWEIG, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Second Amendment enshrines gun ownership, nevertheless, gun usage can and should be regulated, to preserve our safety and security.
We need laws to regulate gun use like automobile use is regulated:
• License gun owners for usage only after they pass periodic safety tests.
• Require periodic inspection of licensed people’s arsenals to enforce modification prohibitions (like smog checks on automobiles).
• Require gun users to carry insurance for damage done by their guns.
• Maintain and enforce background check databases to restrict guns from criminals, terrorists and mentally ill people.
• Require a three-day pause before gun delivery.
• Enable “red flag” powers for police to temporarily confiscate a person’s armaments.
• Prohibit gun makers from marketing their lethal products to minors.
• Raise the minimum age for gun ownership to 21, or even 25.
• Prohibit sale, transfer, and ownership of military-grade weapons.
These are sensible regulations; they are not radical and they do not conflict with the 2nd Amendment. Opposing these regulations, Republican officials are actually enabling and condoning the ability of mass-murderers to kill innocent children, women, and men.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
Every time there’s a mass shooting of wholly innocent people, the mandarins of mass media news advise us to remember the victims’ friends and relations in our thoughts and prayers. As a confirmed low-church Episcopalian, this oft-repeated recommendation is impossible for me to argue against. Still, the need for worldly action is manifestly required.
In his 1973 book, “Ascent of Man,” chapter 3, Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) suggested a dynamic response to gun violence:
“We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye (and) the hand is the cutting edge of the mind.” (Reference: The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, page 39)
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
It’s really interesting and ironic that Trump and his spoon-fed MAGA zealots, who are always whining about freedom, free speech and fake news, have expressed no objection to CPAC [the Conservative Political Action Conference] holding their convention in Hungary, a real bastion of Modern-Day Democracy under the brilliant, freedom-loving leadership of Victor Orbán, who espouses that the path to holding power is to have a controlled media. It’s no wonder that Trump has called him a great leader, because Trump desperately wants to be one, but never will be, based simply upon the reality of who Trump actually is.
By the way, do you think that our founding fathers really wanted or intended for our presidents to emulate a European autocrat?
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
Since 23 states no longer require a permit to carry a weapon [with Ohio joining the roster June 13 and two more scheduled to join—Indiana on July 1 and Alaska Jan. 1, 2023], this means no background checks whatsoever are needed to buy any gun.
In 2021, 2,000 Ohio applicants were denied permits, but now can buy and carry weapons, and frighteningly weapons of war.
I wonder how many of them will carry an AK-47 into the next school shooting? For those senators who take money from the NRA for their votes against gun control, they should have all names (and amounts pocketed) posted online.
I wish anyone who opposes any effort to help curb the slaughter loved children as much as their guns.
Innocent people, whether young or old, should not have to live in fear of going to the store, attending religious services or simply being a third grader.
ANITA GRIFFITH, Vermilion, Ill.
We live in a 21st-Century world with 16th century evolutionally structured governance. If there is anyone on the planet who is not aware of our societal profiteers and billionaires “who’ve spouted their” love of country and religiosity, please reflect on the words of Philosopher Blaze Pascal when stating “men never do evil so cheerfully and completely as they do so from Religious Convictions.”
Todays (2022) new communicative technology and its multiple apps have poisoned, bullied and threatened both individuals, groups, entities and country in a multitude of ways, more so than our earlier 19th and 20th century commercialization did in poisoning the minds of our young children that required caring parents and the government to intervene and institute multiple regulations via legislation for their protection.
Today’s greedy profiteers are far more dangerous then our past “gilded era” schemers and reprobates, and require our constant adherence to two iconic leaders of the past, such as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis when stating, “We may have democracy, we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Frederick Douglas cited this fact: “Power concedes nothing without DEMAND.” This is exactly what and whom we are referring to today’s multi-billionaires with the announcement that Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $42 billion, purportedly to enhance the population’s utility of “Free Speech.” B.S. Our nation has instituted more safety measures in the protections of our citizenry, and the sooner all our citizenry learn there is simply nothing “free” in our society nor world, whether it’s the air we breath, the water we drink or our “spoken or written words.”
That’s the reality we must address for societies sustainability and security as our very salvation depends on it.
FRANK C. ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
May we be reminded that it was the Semitic race that gave us Jews, Christians and Muslims? Europeans — i.e. Whites — now claim these faiths as their own. So how does that make “Whites” “greater” than anyone else on the planet?
Unfortunately, these faiths seem to now be more about killing and waging wars than actually following their founders’ teachings.
What happened to “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9), for example? How about the rest of this book, even, especially chapters 6 and 7? Anyone who calls themselves “Christian” must know and believe at least this much. Otherwise, they are only fooling themselves — and maybe others.
Luke 6 speaks to this, too.
May we all learn and remember these Biblical truths today.
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
I hope M. Warner’s letter, “Ukraine is a Moral Reckoning,” in your 6/1/22 issue is intended as satire. To contemplate nuclear war so cavalierly begs that question, as does his end sentence, quoting George C. Scott in “Dr. Strangelove” — “I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed.”
Wow!
ROBERT McALLISTER, Lantana, Fla.
Editor Replies: We can’t say for sure, but we think that closing line by Gen. “Buck” Turgidson about the survivability of a nuclear war is a pretty good clue.
From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2022
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