Ending the Gun Violence: Plenty of Steps To Take
It’s time to harden our school security across the nation, as the crazies are coming out of the woodwork in force with mass murder in mind (“Following in Evil Footsteps,” May 21).
We need to follow the Israelis’ example of setting up a thorough and layered security system that will thwart any type of attack by any type of miscreant.
Banning guns or any class of guns or raising the age for purchases will do nothing other than punish more than 100 million decent Americans who may well need those weapons to defend themselves.
Hardening our schools’ security is the only effective way to make our children safe in an inherently unsafe world. Anything less is a waste of time, money, effort and lives. Bill Taggard Commack
We live in perverted times, when the right to bear firearms exceeds the right to life and safety.
Once again, our nation has suffered an unspeakable tragedy: A kid uses a firearm that he shouldn’t have been allowed to have.
I have long advocated adopting and mandating that recognition technology be applied to all firearms, in order to prevent more heinous tragedies. But this suggestion is met with the same vacant stares and deaf ears offered to parents of the slain by many lawmakers and politicians. So the mournful march to bury the innocent student and teacher victims across this nation continues unabated. Lawrence Tarantino Manhattan We need to stop the political rhetoric every time there is a school shooting. The left runs to the need for gun control while the right starts waving around the Constitution.
They are both useless. No law is going to stop school shootings.
If the laws against murder don’t work, it is daft to think that a law about gun purchases is going to stop the carnage. John Metallo Slingerlands
Twelve to 14 years ago, schools began installing entry buzzers at entrances: Push the button, tell the office who you are and they buzz you in.
I have a job delivering to private homes, businesses and schools. The buzzer system hasn’t changed. Most of the time, I’m let into the main hall of the school with only students walking by. I can go east, I can go west, it’s all up to me to decide.
Yet we ask how Dimitrios Pagourtzis was able to bring two weapons into a school. Schools must be equipped with armed guards at the doors. The system has to change. William Sedlak Barnegat, NJ Acknowledging that mass killers are often seeking publicity and fame from their actions, maybe the press shouldn’t publicize their names, photos and bios, thus tempting other such disturbed individuals to seek similar notoriety by committing an even bigger and “better” massacre. Paul T. Lennon Larchmont
If we can’t figure out what is motivating perpetrators to commit these unspeakable acts, we will be unable to do anything about it. It is undeniably important to do all we can to protect our schoolchildren, but by emphasizing gun control, we are promoting a solution that sounds good but will at best be marginally effective. Arthur Copeland Stamford, Conn.
The litany of reasons being touted for the latest school shootings — Ritalin, violent movies, video games, abortion, etc. — makes people in other countries shake their heads in disbelief.
All these supposed causes are part of life in many other parts of the world, but gun violence is rarely, if ever, the result. Surely it’s the one obvious factor that differentiates the United States from the rest of the world: the ready availability of guns, especially semi-automatic weapons.
Until Americans admit this and do something about it, America will never be “great again” in the eyes of the rest of the world. And many of us will be too afraid of being caught up in gun violence to ever visit your country. Elizabeth Harrington Queensland, Australia