Reactions to Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Florida high school
“Gunman kills 17 at Florida school,” Feb. 15 news story.
Here we go again: another shooting, another group of innocent young children killed. Of course we will hear that the prevalence of guns cannot be the problem. It must be the shooter who is probably a mental patient or disturbed person and is to blame.
We know that other countries have mentally ill people, but the question we should be asking is why they don’t have the number of killings that we do. Could it be that they don’t allow the free-for-all open purchase of guns?
Wake up, people. We will continue to have these heartbreaking killings as long as guns can be bought as easily as a loaf of bread. The time has come to rid Congress of the politicians who bow to the pressure and payments they get from the NRA. Let’s all get together and make a big change in Washington this coming November.
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Right now, The Denver Post is probably getting flooded with letters to the editor that are full of rage and demanding that gun laws need to be changed in order to prevent the next school shooting. But how many letters are addressing the real problem, which is broken lives?
The Florida shooter was a sociopath, according to psychiatrists being interviewed. Other experts being interviewed are wondering why the shooter wasn’t brought to the attention of law enforcement. Then there are those experts being interviewed who are talking about the breakdown of societal norms and the pressure of social media to make many young people strive to be notorious.
So, with tons of evidence that the young man in Florida had mental health issues, was on record as raging against this school, and no one felt the need to report anything that might have prevented the school shooting, the immediate answer from the left is gun control. Go figure.
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Following the slaughter of high school students in his state, Sen. Marco Rubio was quick to say that now is not the time to consider the issue of gun violence in our country. Being No. 6 on the Senate list of career recipients of NRA funding, Rubio has more than 3 million reasons to think there’s no such thing as the right time. (Colorado’s Sen. Cory Gardner is No. 5.) When will be the right time to discuss the NRA’s stranglehold on our country’s legislators? As long as the NRA calls the shots (pun intended), we the people of the United States will remain targets. The Second Amendment’s wording is awkward, but I believe it’s safe to assume that the framers of the Constitution never intended it to grant permission for citizens to gun down their fellow countrymen.
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I’ve heard many people express that their “thoughts and prayers” are with the families of the students who were killed and injured in the Florida school shooting. I am tired of people repeating this meaningless phrase when those same people are not ready to engage in a meaningful discussion of why, in this country with the freedom of gun ownership, we have this issue of mass shootings.
Before you dismiss me as another lunatic liberal, understand that I own guns, I learned how to hunt from my father, and I support the Second Amendment. But we are not going to address this issue without talking about it. I’ve seen too many politicians say, “This is not the time to talk about this.” What garbage is that? If Newtown wasn’t the time, then I don’t know when it was time or when it will ever be time.
Let’s figure this out and do whatever is needed to spare others from this unspeakable pain. Send letters of 150 words or fewer to openforum@denverpost.com or 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 800, Denver, CO, 80202. Please include full name, city and phone number. Contact information is for our purposes only; we will not share it with anyone else. You can reach us by telephone at 303-954-1331.