Stop the flow of illegal guns into our city
This month, the Chicago Sun-Times has written two editorials about guns, following the shooting of a mother and grandmother in which an 11- month- old was also hurt and the shootings of nine Oregon community college students by a young man who also shot himself.
Here is a selection of excerpts from letters to the editor about gun violence that we have received since then. Some we have printed in full earlier:
Lacking courage
We need to get guns off the streets, and we need stiffer sentences for repeat gun offenders, but we also need to stop the flow of guns into the community. We need to shut down bad gun stores like Chuck’s. We need universal background checks, and we need to close the current loopholes on Internet and gun show sales. We need to title guns like cars, making the gun purchasers responsible for the guns they purchase. We need to put gun runners behind bars, whether they are selling them out of their homes, neighborhood stores, car trunks, or abandoned buildings ( I refuse to believe that law enforcement doesn’t know who these individuals are). We need to stop the guns coming into our Illinois borders. Finally, we all need to check our homes to make sure there are no illegal guns present, and if you are a legal gun owner for God’s sake, lock it up from children.
Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, Faith Community of Saint Sabina
Use technology
If I need to show my driver’s license while buying allergy medicine, then why shouldn’t gun buyers do the same thing? If my purchases of allergy pills are registered in my name with my address as shown on my driver’s license, then why shouldn’t gun purchases also be registered? With modern technology, it’s very easy to do.
And also, if I have to limit the amount of allergy meds I buy each month, why shouldn’t gun buyers be limited in the number of guns they can buy in a given period of time?
Rebecca Christiansen, Warrenville
Followthe money
I say follow the money. I would very much like to know how much the NRA gives to our elected officials. It’s not ideology that drives this madness, it’s money.
Mona Stern, Gary
Call to action
We need mandatory minimums for violators of our gun laws, not slaps on the wrist. Prison time, clear and certain. We may need a specialty gun court where the judge and the prosecutors will know the law and enforce the law. The shootings in Chicago are done by criminals who have been convicted but are not in prison.
Peter Bensinger, former administrator, U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration; former director, Illinois Department
of Corrections; former executive director, Chicago Crime Commission
Violence starts with parents
Stiffer sentences are in order for those convicted of a serious crime involving a lethal weapon. Children are malleable. Why do so many of them grow up to become gang- bangers? Influence starts with parenting. It continues with peer pressure and schooling, and once that child is no longer a child, the few rotten ones spoil the barrel, tarnishing the good, sometimes fatally.
Mike Koskiewicz, Portage Park
Guns, gangs go hand in hand
I would like to knowwhen we are going to stop blaming guns and maybe take a look in the mirror and ask: “Are we doing all we can?” In other words, are police being deployed in the right manner? Do we need to bring back gang specialists that the community trusts and sees every day in their neighborhoods? Are cops who were previously assigned to administrative duties up to the task to take on the violence that our city is enduring? Bob Angone, retired police lieutenant,
South Loop
Limit access to guns
Regarding the shooting in Oregon, have we had enough yet? Hey, NRA, are you proud enough yet? There are a lot of deranged people out here. We need to lower the firepower, or we’ll all eventually have someone close to us touched by gunfire! Edwina Jackson, Longwood Manor
Gutless politicians
Almost 35,000 gun deaths per year in the United States. Yet, our gutless politicians refuse to introduce legislation to make background checks mandatory. Or, to close the gun show loophole. Or, outlaw assault rifles. They’d rather cave to the NRA and continue to allow felons, terrorists and wackos to buy all the guns they want. After the massacre in Oregon, the politicians are still afraid to challenge the NRA and do what’s right for the country.
Tom Minnerick, Elgin
Nutty theories
On Facebook, many right- wing nuts actually believe that liberals made up most, if not all, of the recent mass murders— including Sandy Hook! We are dealing with unreasonable conspiracy theorists — it is unbelievable how many come out of the woodwork to spew their crazy ideas and venom whenever anyone mentions passing ANY type of gun laws.
Mary Anne Kenost, Palatine
Stiff penalties needed
If you are caught with an illegal gun, you should go right to jail for at least one to three years.
Deborah Rheinstrom, Lincolnwood
Stand up to gangs
The aldermen and congressmen of the wards and districts affected, along with the U. S. attorney and Cook County state’s attorney, will be judged harshly by history for not standing up to the gangs that are systematically killing each other along with innocents who are caught in the crossfire.
Ned L. McCray, Tinley Park
Decline in safety, civility
The primary two reasons for our country’s decline in civility and safety are the following:
First, the breakdown of the intact family as we have known it, meaning the presence of two effective, on- duty parents in the home. The second is a decline in people’s committed connection to an organized belief system or religion.
Leon Hoffman, Lake View
Gun- related rampages
Gun- related rampages have happened again. This time death and injury have visited Texas Southern University and Northern Arizona University. Add these to the carnage score of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, and to those twisted events involving the recent deaths of a Virginia television crew, incidents at grade and high schools, movie theaters, a church, political rally, and street battles among gang- bangers in today’s urban gang wars.
Earl Beal, Terre Haute, Ind.