Presidents lived contrasting lives

As I watched the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush, I couldn’t help but think of comparisons between his life and that of our current president, Donald Trump.

One wanted to make America kinder and gentler. The other is making it meaner and divided.

One was married to the love of his life for 73 years. The other has gone through three trophy wives so far, and probably cheated on all of them.

One fathered another president. Let’s hope the same isn’t true for the other.

One had an honorable military career. The other was exempted from military service because of bone spurs.

One had members of his Cabinet and administration at his funeral. The other, when he dies, will have his present, too, if they have completed their prison sentences. Henderson

Thank you for your article indicating that state legislative leaders may be inclined to propose gun safety legislation in the coming year.

The next-to-last paragraph in the article — “It is not a difficult concept to grasp. If you own a gun, you should be required to secure it, sell it or surrender it, or prepare for the consequence if you lose control of it.” — has been more or less the law in Japan for decades. In order to obtain a gun, usually for hunting, a person must undergo training, register the weapon with authorities, keep the weapon under lock and key, and allow key access to authorities. In addition, there may be random checks to make certain the weapon is secure.

The result is that the mega city of Tokyo, for example, in its greater area of over 32 million population, may have a handful of gun homicides per year. This small number indicates how safe gun control laws have made the bustling Tokyo area, with similarly safe results nationally. Certainly, the people of Nevada could accept the type of legislation proposed in the article to save lives while freeing us to live more securely. Henderson

Each year, millions of dogs are killed in animal shelters while, at the same time, “puppy mills” breed thousands of puppies for sale to pet stores. Puppy mill dogs are kept in tiny cages in dark warehouses and bred continuously until they can no longer produce. The exhausted mothers and their puppies seldom get adequate food, water, shelter or proper vet care. The puppies are bred for quantity rather than quality, and suffer from illness, neglect and genetic problems passed on to the unsuspecting consumer who buys them.

People looking for companion animals should adopt from our shelters, their local humane society or a rescue group. Next time you see a cute puppy in the pet store, remember the suffering they came from and walk away. As a compassionate society, we all have a responsibility to put puppy mills out of business. One of the best ways is to avoid pet stores. Las Vegas