Gun rights override safety

On Thursday night, I kept thinking about my daughter’s emergency drill at school that day. They practiced what to do if there was an active shooter in the school. She’s 8 years old and reacts to this drill the same way we did to fire drills. It’s part of life.

I’m glad they do them, glad they practice. There have already been 11 shootings on school properties this year, according to National Public Radio. We don’t even blink an eye about them anymore. No one even bothers to talk about how to keep guns out of the hands of those who want to harm our small children.

The National Rifle Association has stopped this conversation with its blood money. I challenge Sens. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown, as well as Rep. Steve Stivers, to take up the challenge of keeping my daughter safe from the next crazy person who is allowed to get a gun.

Why does this keep happening here? Because we care more about being able to buy a gun than protecting the innocent.

Kirsten Kerr Columbus

For every bird killed by a wind turbine more than 1,000 are killed hitting residential houses. Commercial buildings kill even more than residential houses. For some reason, no homeowner or commercial building owner has been prosecuted for this.

Geoff Abbate Columbus that has ongoing loss. No one was “blindsided” by the Linden closing.

O’Grady’s friend and the former mayor, Michael Coleman, did absolutely nothing when Columbus Castings closed in 2016, causing massive layoffs to at least 800 employees from the steel company. I do not need to be schooled to know that fabrication is not food, but it came down to profit and loss, with loss winning out. That is business.

My issue is with closings in every business, which are a direct result of Amazon, the company Columbus hopes will build its HQ2 here. The numbers are big, and the numbers are ugly, a direct result of Amazon’s power.

In 2017 more than 5,000 major retailers closed. Gap, 200; Macy’s, 68; Radio Shack, 1,000; Payless, more than 800; Sears/Kmart, 358; American Apparel, 110. And, after more than 50 years in the business, Columbus’ homegrown The Limited closed its remaining 250 stores.

The list continues to grow while Amazon opens stores with no cashiers, and probably not in the Linden area.

Not a single Kroger employee is losing his or her job because of the Linden closing. That is something to be proud of.

Carmen Sauer Columbus