School Shootings
I have a great respect for LBUSD. As a school nurse for the district for ten years (now retired) I was aware of the district’s interaction with law enforcement in the creation of school safety protocol. The article by Eduardo Landa did not specifically mention LBUSD’s stand on guns, but when I worked for the school district, there was a zero tolerance for students bringing guns to school. I hope that is still the case. It is unfair, impractical and potentially dangerous to expect teachers to train and carry/use weapons. Let the teachers teach! That is a big enough responsibility.
The writer implies they are in favor of more guns at our schools. I implore Gov. Brown not to believe that more guns is an answer. Please research how many countries in Europe and Asia are able to ban all guns and enforce it. Look at the statistics on violent crimes and deaths in those countries. Most people simply do not need to own guns. Has anyone noticed the name: ASSAULT rifle! These are not for hunting. They are for assault... made to kill people. No one other than military or law enforcement should have access to assault rifles. Lives are at stake, children’s lives, too many have died. Ban guns and make the penalty severe for violation. The person who sells a gun made to kill people is an accessory to murder.
Kudos to Paul White’s [editorial cartoon] comment on the NRA’s twisted thinking.
Category:
- Log in to post comments
Featured Video
Beachcomber
Copyright 2024 Beeler & Associates.
All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced or transmitted – by any means – without publisher's written permission.
Comments
In the Beachcomber letters section [March 16], writer Janet Starkey wrote about banning guns as an answer to school violence. She stated that in Europe guns are banned and authorities are able to enforce that ban, and to research it. So I did.
In a Washington Post story, dated February 2015, a European Commission study released in 2014 cited an “estimate of 67 million illicit firearms across the continent.”
Here's more from the story. “It’s very easy to get such a weapon,” said Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, a former operations director for the Danish security service PET. “It’s not only a problem for Denmark. It’s a problem for all of Europe.” He was speaking about hand guns and assault weapons like Kalashnikovs.
A study of global mass-shooting incidents from 2009 to 2015 by the Crime Prevention Research Center, headed by economist John Lott, shows the U.S. doesn't lead the world in mass shootings. In fact, it doesn't even make the top 10 when measured by death rate per million from mass public shootings.
If an anti-gun person cannot prove that banning guns results in there being 'no illicit guns in the hands of criminals', their entire argument is baseless. It becomes nothing more than taking personal feelings and imposing their will on the freedom and liberty of an entire society. That's what you see happening on the national stage and they're using children to spread misinformation!
Its unsubstantiated conclusion /opinion being used to ignore a right guaranteed in the US Constitution because they just don't like guns. Go figure.
Robert Van der Upwich
Unfortunately, you took one comment from my 3/16 letter, and went ballistic without seeing my main point. You misquoted me. I don't want to debate, I just want my opinion to be heard. The BIG FACT is that too many children have died because of guns. I don't have the answer, but something must be done!
I don't "dislike" guns (as you assumed). I understand that some people enjoy hunting or need to protect their homes, but it's just too easy for unstable people to get access to semi-automatic weapons. There needs to be an acceptable compromise Re: gun access.
And no one is "using" children to "spread information," as you wrote. Have you seen the massive protests and listened to what the children are saying? These are intelligent and eloquent young people exercising their freedom of speech... and they are saying that THEY want gun control.
Jan Starkey