Readers on guns, schools, immigrants
Today’s immigrants, yesterday’ s runaways
In some ways, the lot of illegal immigrants today is not unlike that of runaway slaves a century and a half ago. Many are fleeing the violence of drug wars that are fueled by Americans’ insatiable demand for narcotics and our refusal to admit that ourWar on Drugs today is as unwinnable as our war on alcohol in the 1920s. Some people take pity on these people today just like others took pity on fleeing slaves back then. That pity may range from leaving bottles of water for illegal aliens trekking across the deserts of the Southwest to creating “Sanctuary Cities.” These merciful people will enjoy no direct benefit from their actions other than the gratitude of those who they help. They just feel that human beings should not suffer if it can be avoided.
Contrary to what President Trump would have us believe, more and more Americans today feel that immigration is good for America and fewer and fewer consider it to be an existential threat to our established way of life. Whatever position you hold on immigration, legal or otherwise, ask yourself this: Do you hold that position because it benefits others, or because it benefits yourself?
RONRODENBERG, CENTERVILLE
Reconsider arming schoolstaff
We strongly urge the Hamilton City School District to reconsider the proposal to arm civilian personnel in their schools. We share the belief that maintaining safe and secure schools must be a top priority. We also recognize that the threat of school violence is complex, and has no single solution. However, we also believe it is possible to maximize physical and psychological safety and minimize harm using evidence-based approaches. Arming civilian personnel in schools has not been shown to be effective, could instead cause harm, and diverts time and resources away from strategies that can reduce violence in schools.
Youth look to the adults in their lives to understand and respond to the world around them. If we want them to solve problems non-violently, make decisions based on evidence rather than fear, and seek innovative solutions to complex problems, then we must model those behaviors.
AMITYNOLTEMEYER, BRIAN D. SCHULTZ, MIAMI UNIVERSITY
We’retheproblem, notthegun
Re: Charles Scott’s letter of July 3, “2nd Amendment’s first words matter,” Mr. Scott cites that muskets were primitive and incapable of rapid fire, but he fails to see that those muskets were the assault weapons of their day and that technology, with improvements, was in place until the CivilWar when weapons firing cased ammunition became prevalent. Our Founding Fathers penned our Constitution and Bill of Rights in a way that it could evolve and keep pace with a society and technology they could not have imagined.
I have to assume that Mr. Scott wrote to decry gun violence, and with that I agree absolutely. But if he is quietly advocating that additional gun laws would solve it, then we are in disagreement.
The Armalite Rifle, or AR, was invented in 1954. ... With a rifle that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 60 years, but is now used in some criminal activities, one should ask what has changed. My response is that we have, not the gun.
MICHAELL. SCHNIPPER, OXFORD