Letters to the Editor: California’s restrictive gun laws couldn’t stop the Saugus shooting

To the editor: There was a school shooting Nov. 14 at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, and it brought out the usual calls for “sensible” gun control laws.

Really? This shooting happened in California, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. We have registration, a so-called red flag system, limitations on magazine capacity, limitations on gun purchases and more. This boy was too young to own or posses a gun, yet the shooting occurred.

This was another tragedy, but we can learn from it. The draconian gun laws that pile up like driftwood will not end these shootings. Legislators should stop enacting laws solely to satisfy the appearance that they are doing something.

Good people who own guns do not hurt others unless it is for defense of themselves or others. These shootings are done by evil or deeply troubled souls. That needs to be the focus.

Lenore Devita, Toluca Lake

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To the editor: Must our schools become fortresses to protect our students? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

While politicians dither on passing gun legislation, securing our campuses for the safety of students must become our top priority. There is something inherently wrong when excellent security is in place at, say, a county fair but not at vulnerable high school campuses.

How many student lives could be saved if all schools were secured with fencing and had a restricted entrance where security personnel could check all belongings and scan everyone for hidden weapons?

The time is now to implement preventive measures on our high school campuses. We have no other choice than to fortify our schools.

Lesley Masuda, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: The quiet acceptance of the “new normal” of kids being killed at school and that nothing can be done about gun violence is appalling.

Twenty first-graders were killed in Newtown in 2012. What have we done about it? Nothing. Parkland, Fla.? Nothing. And now, we lost two teens at Saugus High School to the same senseless gun violence.

Other countries that endured massacres have successfully implemented programs to stem the violence, notably Australia and more recently New Zealand. You may not like those countries’ responses, but their effectiveness in quelling the carnage cannot be denied.

Germany does not teach God in its public schools, and its children play violent video games and consume pop culture, yet gun massacres are rare there. Same with France, Spain, Denmark, Japan and Canada. The schools in those countries are safe.

Doing nothing about gun violence in the U.S. guarantees there will be more dead kids. Way too many people seem fine with this; I am not.

Bryan Hays, Saugus