What, if anything, can change our trajectory? Another brave family member will have to step forward and allow their fellow Americans to see what gun violence looks like, not on TV, but in real life. We all need to become members of the forensics team who have the unenviable task of bearing witness to the carnage left behind.
The time has come for the pro-life movement to move beyond being merely a pro-birth movement and shift its focus from the unborn to a country threatened by gun violence in our daily walk of life. It’s time for all who are eligible to vote to become educated voters and cast votes for candidates qualified to be effective legislators and not just flame throwers with specious arguments against our government.
We don’t have to live in fear, hate and division. Thoughts and prayers cannot fix this.
- Valerie Lee, Dayton
I always look forward to reading Ray Marcano’s columns. They are always thoughtful and timely. His column on Sunday, May 29 “After Uvalde and Buffalo, I’m blaming us” conveyed the feelings of so many others and myself. I take issue, however, with his statement “I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.” How, with the massacres of so many innocent children, from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Uvalde, could anybody support a constitutional amendment that allows unregulated ownership of assault weapons? If the Second Amendment justifies this carnage, it needs to be repealed.
- Richard D. Smith, Kettering
I’m so tired of writing and calling in the wake of another mass murder to beg someone to do something. The first thing Mike Turner can do today is to call on the White House to open a White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The second is to sponsor and pass comprehensive gun control legislation to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of everyone. Turner knows what it’s like to be the parent hearing their child was in the path of a murderer like these shootings and every other before and after the Oregon District. I was so moved by how he acted after this happened here in Dayton. He can’t make any more parents have to live the same thing when he literally has the power to stop it.
- Lisa Shininger, Dayton