To the editor: Another shooting — in church no less (“3 dead, including attacker, and 17 injured in Minneapolis Catholic school shooting,” Aug. 27). It is so commonplace in this country that we hardly blink an eye. When are we as Americans going to wake up? Countries that have strict gun policies have much fewer shootings. I get so disgusted with people who say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Sure, but if people did not have guns in their hands, they couldn’t shoot anyone.
Republicans have made gun rights one of their core issues. There is no place for guns in our country — none. Few people kill their dinner and bring it home. Any politician who supports gun rights should be voted out of office. And we as Americans need to realize that not all “rights” should be entitlements. As a mother, when my child abused their “rights,” they were taken away.
Paula Petrotta, Rancho Palos Verdes
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To the editor: Children lost to gun violence deserve more than prayers and clichés. Politicians and news outlets must stop using these tragedies for self-promotion. Tears and hollow speeches won’t save lives.
We need real solutions from experts in law enforcement, countries that have curbed gun violence and mental health professionals. Politicians craft careful statements to avoid angering the National Rifle Assn., maintaining inaction.
Those who recycle hollow phrases that enable gun violence must be dismissed. Instead of accepting these deaths, we need genuine efforts to change laws, create safeguards and educate about the causes.
News organizations must investigate and highlight real options for prevention. Sensationalizing incidents without addressing solutions normalizes youth deaths. Media that fail to expose political roadblocks become complicit in this crisis.
Ronald Kotkin, Long Beach
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To the editor: I watched the news tonight and was horrified, as it started with another shooting at an American school. My father was a War World II veteran who returned from Guadalcanal in a wheelchair. After the war, he kept weapons in our home, including a pistol and a rifle, but any ammunition our dad might have had was hidden. My brother and I were not permitted to point any weapon — even a water gun — at anyone. My dad was an expert marksman who went to a shooting range. However, he recognized that ammunition for weapons of war was not to be in a house where children could find them.
I cringe every time I hear about a shooting in an American school. How many children must die? America can stop this carnage while also permitting citizens to own weapons.
Marilyn Weiss Alper, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I am a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother, so of course the news of the shooting of schoolchildren in a Minneapolis church hit me viscerally. But what brought immediate tears to my eyes was the little boy who matter-of-factly told a reporter that he took cover as they had “practiced.” Grade-school children in America must be regularly taught how to react to gunfire. Reading, writing, arithmetic and survival of a shooting.
Mary Rouse, Los Angeles