To the Editor:
Are we really surprised by the latest senseless shooting? Maybe where and when it happened – a Jewish synagogue during a religious ceremony. But these kinds of senseless acts seem to be regular occurrences.
And they are followed by the second set of senseless acts – our elected officials coming out with rhetoric condemning the acts and promising various measures to prevent them. After several weeks, the rhetoric goes away and we settle in to these legislators getting back to their primary mission, if they are actually in session, of “naming post offices” and little else.
Don’t we really believe it is time to seriously address the use of assault weapons, extended magazines, bump stocks, more exhaustive background checks especially for “private” and “gun show” sales, etc.?
Most Americans, I think, would agree with these as probable issues to seriously pursue. Notice I didn’t say “Take all guns away.” Even I believe that’s far too extreme a measure to advocate.
Will this stop all potential future shootings? Absolutely not, but it would signal our collective hopeful action to reduce the occurrences of them.
Any chance of this happening? Probably not, as the will of the legislators is just not in tune with the will of a majority of the people.
Michael F. Vezeau
Bluffton
