Ending the Bloodshed
The nation’s duty after the nightmare at a Florida high school
deaf to the screams of these children? The gun lobby pours millions into attack ads against politicians who are not in lock step with the NRA — that’s why.
So while children cower in the closets of their classrooms, our congressmen, cash in hand, slink into the safety of the safest building in the country. Shame on every one of you. Bob Bascelli Seaford
At my grandson’s school, I see a woman armed with nothing but a jacket that says “security” on the back. She is not deterring anything.
It’s time schools took some of the money they waste and hired ex-law enforcement or ex-GIs and arm them to act as security. Give them a background check, a psych evaluation and a Kevlar vest.
I’d be front and center as a volunteer. Marty Perry Massapequa
Nikolas Cruz, this maniac who allegedly shot up the school in Parkland, Fla., basically indicated everything except the time and place he was going to attack. But somehow, we missed all of his warning signs.
Despite all the red flags this individual gave us, liberals are still trying to convince us that only guns are somehow responsible.
This loon was begging to be stopped, yet nobody put two and two together. That has nothing to do with guns.
We have to do a better job of weeding out the mentally dangerous. John Scott Dumont, NJ
The Post asks Trump to “please act.” Of course Trump will do something; he’ll retreat to his Florida hideaway to escape the noisy cries and wailing of the children’s parents.
Thankfully for American politicians, their pleas are drowned out by the delightful sound of money tossed around by the gun lobby.
Americans have never learned that the “right to bear arms” was for the creation of a standing, unpaid army — not a license to wantonly kill. I feel sorry for sensible Americans, but I’m sure glad I don’t live there. Ron Leroy Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Predictably, people are calling for “common sense” gun laws again.
NY’s Safe Act has such a “ban.” It is estimated that over 90 percent of gun owners did not register their grandfathered “firearms.”
There are millions of ArmaLite rifles or ARs out there. Lots of us call them modern sporting rifles now. Even after the Safe Act, MSRs are still being sold in New York. All manufacturers had to do was tweak the firearms a bit and they passed the new regulations.
Maybe if people were more vigilant and followed up on reported threats, we would be safer.
If schools were not “gunfree zones,” and if law-abiding, properly trained, legalgun owners who are teachers or school staff could carry their guns at work, our children would be safer. Ed Arzouian Lanesboro, Pa. Why would a 19-year-old boy have a semiautomatic gun to begin with? He had a history of being obsessed with firearms. He had spoken about taking out his classmates.
Why wasn’t he being watched? Why wasn’t this being taken seriously?
Many lives were taken away by a mentally unstable young man who was known to be dangerous.
Who is to be held accountable for this?
My heart breaks. I cannot comprehend an act of mass murder like this taking place again. Alfred Bonnabel Manhattan
The nut who allegedly killed fellow young people and wounded others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS was on the school’s radar.
He once boasted that he would shoot up a school. Additionally, he was not allowed to take a backpack to school and had been expelled. How much warning did school officials need? Perhaps a notarized letter?
Gun-control advocates are out in force, but what we really need is a better national registry for the mentally ill that would show up on background checks.
If we already had one, Cruz would have been detected and wouldn’t have been able to purchase the AR-15. Elio Valenti Brooklyn
The Post’s plea to the president was welcome. The editorial was not about being on the political right or left; it’s about taking steps to solve this problem together.
As quickly as Democrats say we need better gun laws, Republicans will say it’s not the guns. But it’s not about either.
It’s about working together to do what we can to stop gun violence. This is not the time for politicians to pander to their base or point fingers so they can keep their jobs.
We can’t be the greatest country in the world if we keep letting this happen. That is truly a disgrace to our flag and the people fighting and dying for our freedom. Vincent Mastrota Sea Cliff The problem isn’t gun con- trol, mental-health laws or arming the teachers with weapons. It’s not about video games or any ideology.
The blame should be placed on us and our laziness. It prevents us from donating time to lonely young adults and mentoring parentless children who need love and support and have nowhere to find it.
I don’t believe this 19-yearold thought about the consequences of his horrid actions or the lives of the victims and the families he has affected.
Now The Post wants to tell the president to fix this problem. But I can’t just sit at home in my recliner and blame the president if nothing happens. The problem lies with us and our failure to keep God in this country, in our schools, in our homes and in our lives. Keith Masters Delray Beach, Fla.
Recently, Westchester County approved legislation banning gun shows at the Westchester County Center and other county- owned buildings.
The Florida gun shooting, which killed innocent children, highlights the need for government at every level to do the same.
The state should ban gun shows in government-owned buildings. The annual Albany gun show is held each January at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center — one of the state’s most prestigious government buildings.
If people want to purchase guns, they should do so at private locations. Government buildings should not be used for that purpose. Paul Feiner Town Supervisor Greenburgh
I have said it before and will say it again: There is no reason for a civilian to have more than a five- or sixround clip or magazine.
That would include bump stocks, too. They should all be banned. Richard Tartaglia Centerport
Cruz walked around advertising his sick desires for years.
If firearms did not exist, he would have orchestrated a different way to seek out his desires. Perhaps with a truck or pressure-cooker bomb. Robert T. Bronkie Jr. Williamsville
The AR-15 rifle has been available for sale to the general public since 1964. Semiautomatic rifles have been available for over a century. The escalating incidence of mass shootings is a more recent phenomenon. Why?
The pacifist Amish are well-armed, but I don’t recall an incident of an Amish mass shooting. Yet, if the media are to be believed, guns invariably turn on their owners and “run amok.”
When people are encouraged to believe that life is merely the interruption of oblivion, it encourages the random and merciless predation of those without hope.
The world is safer when each person believes they are accountable to God. Laws will never succeed where morals fail. James Cunningham Middletown