When guns change lives

Re “NRA makes use of foe Bloomberg to rally its backers,” Oct. 29

I was appalled to read how gun-violence prevention advocates were portrayed in this article, for which I was interviewed at length. It was a slanted piece that focused only on one donor to our movement and excluded the real people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by gun violence, like ours.

Our vibrant daughter, Darien, was shot and killed here in Maine five years ago. And we are among the citizen sponsors of a background check initiative in Maine that will help save lives.

We are not “Bloombergbacked anti-gun activists” or outsiders. We are lifelong Mainers. And it’s wrong to say we are antigun. We are gun owners; one of us is a hunter and a concealed-carry permit holder.

We are not anecdotes to be left on the cutting-room floor. We are grieving parents doing our best to turn an indescribable loss into something positive — a safer Maine. Judi and Wayne

Richardson South Portland, Me.

Re “Our symbolic gun fight,” Opinion, Oct. 27

Although Jonathan Zimmerman did not draw a conclusion for his statement that between 2001 and 2013, Texas college campuses had only five homicides “on or near” them (he does not state how many were “near” or what distance he means by it), it is quite interesting to note that concealed carrying of firearms was allowed during that time.

This, when other “gunfree” locations, including colleges, have experienced mass shootings.

In fact, many mass shootings in recent years have taken place in known gun-free zones. The theater in Aurora, Colo., where James Holmes killed 12 people in 2012 was such a place.

Finally, with rare exceptions, shooters on a rampage tend to kill themselves as soon as someone with lethal force has arrived.

There seems to be pattern here regarding gunfree zones: They are not safe. Texas colleges’ experiences seems to bear that out.

Robert Braley Bakersfield