Readers React: Americans deserve to lose their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms

To the editor: Enough. That’s it. Time to say clearly that a civilized society does not need to have its citizens massacred by a 227-year-old edict. (“Another week, another school shooting,” Feb. 14)

Get the guns out of private hands and to the well-ordered militia called the police force. That’s it. Enough. Take the guns away. Remove the right and make it a privilege. Amend that amendment.

Steve Roberts, North Hollywood

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To the editor: Videos taken by students during the shooting show a war zone: You hear the loud, rapid shooting and the screams and see bodies and blood all around, but it’s students and teachers taking cover, not soldiers in flak jackets and helmets.

Members of Congress should be locked in the Capitol under guard and made to watch these videos until they come to their senses and get these weapons of war rounded up and outlawed here, as other countries have successfully done.

School shootings don’t happen where there are sensible gun-control laws.

Patricia Casey, Fallbrook

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To the editor: I often perform the morbid exercise of trying to remember the last mass shooting, and I increasingly struggle to list even the major stories.

Right now, the killing of 17 high school students in Florida is the top news story. Most of this year’s school shootings passed unnoticed; almost none of the more than 6,000 gun incidents in 2018 documented in the Gun Violence Archive came anywhere close to making the national news.

It seems the National Rifle Assn. is too powerful, the fight too bitter, both sides too entrenched and the carnage too common.

But I want to beg my community to, at the very least, find a doable thing — and do it. If you’re a parent, know if there are guns in houses where your children play. If you’re a gun owner, tell the extremists they do not speak for you.

If you support gun control, say so. Say it to your friends, your neighbors and your elected leaders. Say it with your vote. With every mass murder, we’re told that nothing we say will ever matter. Say it anyway.

Carrie Grinstead, North Hollywood

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To the editor: The “resistance” movement has mobilized for various causes during the past year. The time is long overdue for massive marches across the country against those who foster gun violence.

Most especially, I am pointing at the NRA and its major enabler, the Republican Party.

Those members of Congress who support the NRA and disavow any need for reasonable gun control measures show us that they cherish reelection more than the protection and security of Americans, particularly innocent schoolchildren. With the NRA’s blood money, they may be reelected for countless terms.

Yet at least one shameful truth will remain: They will forever be stained as among our most shameless human beings because they failed to make America a more civilized, humane society.

Joseph L. DeVitis, Rancho Mirage

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To the editor: On the front page of Thursday’s print edition of the Los Angeles Times, I noticed the Lenten Ash Wednesday cross on the forehead of a woman crying outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

For Christians, this symbol made from palm ashes is a reminder that they will return to earthly dust, making Ash Wednesday a time for reflection, repentance and prayer. I hope the children who died in Florida will reap their eternal Christian reward.

It’s interesting to note that Lent started this year on Valentine’s Day and will conclude on April Fool’s Day. Are we fooling ourselves to believe that shootings will stop someday? Will it take a constitutional amendment to prohibit gun ownership?

Tom Kaminski, Manhattan Beach

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To the editor: Please, please do not write that the memory of past school shootings has faded without a thing being done. We are doing something!

After the most recent school shootings, we moved to weaken gun laws. The House recently passed the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act,” which would allow a gun owner to carry a concealed weapon in any state if this was allowed in the owner’s home state. The gun lobby will say that this law needs to pass so that there are more good guys with guns to stop the bad guys.

But easier access to guns hasn’t worked. So when we do something this time, let’s do something different. Let’s tighten gun laws, not weaken them.

Jim Freed, Santa Monica

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To the editor: For those who have visited the Vietnam War Memorial Wall commemorating the lives of 58,195 valiant men and women, it is a breathtakingly sad experience.

To commemorate the victims of gun violence in the United States since 1968, we would need 29 more walls.

Kevin Park, Mission Hills

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To the editor: This continues because we tolerate it. It’s just that simple.

Kim Righetti, Upland

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