Readers React: Charleston shooting: Readers aim their outrage at the NRA

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Worshipers enter Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., four days after a mass shooting that claimed the lives of its pastor and eight others.

(David Goldman / Associated Press)

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People arrive for services at the Emanuel AME Church on Sunday in Charleston, S.C.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Patricia Bailey says a prayer at a memorial outside Emanuel AME Church on Saturday in Charleston, S.C. Thousands of mourners clutching red and white roses attended a vigil in the stunned city of Charleston on Friday to remember nine African American men and women shot dead by a suspected white supremacist.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Police tape outside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., after the mass shooting inside Wednesday.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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People march in protest to the Confederate Museum in Charleston, S.C., on Saturday.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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A framed photograph of one of the shooting victims is left with a message at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

(Curtis Compton / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Members of Emanuel AME Church announce that services and Sunday school will go ahead as scheduled Sunday, four days after the pastor and eight other people were shot to death.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Allen and Georgette Sanders of McClellanville, S.C., pray Saturday morning outside Emanuel AME Church.

(Joseph Tanfani / Los Angeles Times)

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Thousands of people hold hands June 19 and sing”We Shall Overcome” during a prayer vigil for those killed Wednesday night at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Thousands of people gather for a city-sponsored prayer vigil for the nine victims of the Emanuel AME Church shooting at the College of Charleston TD Arena.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Nine Dead After Church Shooting In Charleston

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A woman weeps outside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, June 19, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a sidewalk memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

(David Goldman / Associated Press )

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Marie Goff wipes away tears during a prayer vigil at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday for the victims of the previous day’s shooting at the city’s Emanuel AME Church.

(Grace Beahm / Associated Press)

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Keith McDaniel, pastor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, is surrounded by others in prayer for the victims of Wednesday’s shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

(TIM KIMZEY / Associated Press)

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The steeple of Emanuel AME Church rises above the street as a police officer tells a car to move as the area is closed off following Wednesday’s shooting.

(David Goldman / Associated Press)

By Paul ThorntonLetters Editor

June 19, 2015 4:17 PM PT

The Times’ letter writers have had enough.

In response to the shooting Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., that left nine people attending a prayer meeting dead, there have been no calls from readers for the police investigation to run its course before jumping to conclusions, no pleading for calm, no cautioning against pointing fingers. Only a few readers have addressed racism as a motive of the gunman.

What readers have expressed is outrage; many take aim at the National Rifle Assn. After a string of mass shootings over the last several years, there’s a sense among our letter writers of hopelessness that the violence will ever end.

Glendale resident Joe Bonino singles out the NRA:

Enough is enough! When is this country going to find within itself enough gumption to stand up to the NRA’s influence, which has turned the United States into the most violent, homicidal country in the developed world?

And when is this country going to come to grips with the fact that we have a Supreme Court that has wildly misconstrued the 2nd Amendment to aid and abet the NRA’s greedy mischief?

I was raised in the 1950s, when as kids we were taught to “duck and cover” in the vain attempt to survive a nuclear attack. How ironic that we now really have to look over our shoulders and duck and cover in schools, theaters and churches lest we get blown away by some gun-toting crazy person.

Carlie Harris of Harbor City addresses President Obama:

Mr. President, you said you are tired of making comments after a massacre such as the violence in Charleston. My advice is for you to draft a permanent commentary, where you only have to change the locale, that can be used over and over again.

In our ugly gun culture, the NRA has far too many of our politicians in its pockets. It is only a matter of time that the nation will experience this ugliness again.

Bob Guarrera of Laguna Niguel tells Democrats to look in the mirror:

In a letter published Friday, one reader blames the Republican Party for nurturing the “seeds of the lock and load society” created by the NRA.

Democrats, who had control of the White House and Congress for two years, could have done something if they wanted to. They did nothing.

Ventura resident Mary Foster scolds the media:

It’s high time this country made strict laws against the media sensationalizing and bringing widespread attention to these heinous mass murderers, who are drawn to acting on their twisted visions in part because they are assured instant fame and a nationwide forum for their utterly hateful and often racist views.

Certainly readers clamor for information, and The Times’ Friday paper carried two front-page stories on the church massacre. But laws could protect the public from itself and save many innocent lives in the process.

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