Letters to the editor: Guns
Gun solutions
Assault weapon: any of various automatic or semiautomatic firearms, e.g. assault rifle, pistol. Meriam/Webster dictionary.
Call them what they are, assault weapons, military style weapons which are historically used for military combat. They usually have large capacity magazines and can be a rifle or a pistol.
They are designed to kill/maim as many of the “enemy” as possible in a very short amount of time. These aren’t designed for hunting.
- As with driving, licensing should be required.
- Purchasing one should require mandatory training (8-16 hours), in the use, storage and safety of the weapon
- License/permit/competency renewal should be required yearly.
- Require mandatory background checks for anyone buying to verify they are a citizen of proper age, without felony convictions, outstanding warrants, violence issues, and require verifiable mental competency.
- Use restricted to designated shooting areas designed for these types of weapons.
- Assault weapons should not be carried in public.
The goals mentioned don’t infringe on anyone’s legal right to own weapons. They safeguard the public from fear, dread and the agony of carnage that often occurs with these weapons in the hands of those who would willfully harm others.
Hugh E. Massie, Boise
Restrictions
To Mike Simpson,
In your most recent newsletter responding to the Uvalde mass shooting, you blame the shooter’s behavior on mental health. When you say the shooters are mentally ill, I don’t disagree. But very few of the shooters in mass shootings were even on the radar of a mental health professional who could potentially have done something about it. And quite frankly less than 3% of mentally ill people are violent. When you blame mental health, you stigmatize and marginalize mentally ill people even more. But you’re not even doing anything to address the mental health issue or the gun issue! I just see you, Russ Fulcher, Mike Crapo, and Jim Risch voting against any gun control legislation. Did you know that mass shootings increased dramatically when the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004? That ban included large capacity magazines which correlated to the number of deaths in a mass shooting. At least can you look at that? If the perpetrator of mass school killings had access to a sword instead of a gun, how many people would die? Bullets in guns kill people. Please, I’m asking for the sake of our children, do something!
Alisa Rettschlag, Boise
Unregulated
Murderers and domestic terrorists with AR-15s are not part of a “well-regulated militia.” We cannot continue to allow arms manufacturers to make huge profits by supporting the sale of guns used to murder children and each other. Those who are more interested in regulating women’s wombs than sensible gun legislation do not deserve our votes. They are lowest of the low and we need to vote them all out!
Sheila Robbins, Boise
Weapons of war
My religion counsels that “Weapons of war are an ill-omen.” But here in the US we have an unnatural fetish and love for a personal weapon of war, the assault rifle.
Congress and the Supreme Court have bowed to the fetish and refused to take responsibility for the mayhem resulting from this unnatural obsession. The horror it produces is mourned and regretted but ultimately considered the price we all must all pay in obeisance to the fetish.
And there is the underlying fear we must all live with that we could be next, at school, the grocery store, the theater, the park, a concert, the church, anywhere, really. When will some angry or deranged person with an assault rifle appear out of nowhere?
If I speak out will someone take offense? Will I be threatened and denounced on social media? Will someone with a gun decide to act on the anger that’s being expressed? This is a spiraling descent into dystopian madness. An armed society is not a “polite society.” It is a dangerous and lethal society.
Is this the society we want for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren?
Brian Goller, Boise
Gun sales
Here’s a question for Risch, Crapo, Simpson, Fulcher and the rest of Congress: Would you accept “thoughts and prayers” as an adequate response if your children or grandchildren were killed or injured in a school shooting? I doubt it. You would do everything in your power to ensure that those closest were safe.
Maybe you would even go against the NRA. As it is now one can’t believe that any GOP elected official cares about anything except getting elected and retaining their stranglehold on democracy.
There may be a little action over the next few months on some form of gun control legislation but meaningful laws will be a long time coming with the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. At the bare minimum we need nationwide “red flag” warnings and universal waiting periods for all gun sales to allow for valid background checks. In Tulsa the shooter bought his rifle just hours before he shot his doctor. How is that even possible? It takes longer to register a car.
We grieve for the children, teachers, bystanders, patients, parishioners, clergy, shoppers and parents. When are we going to tell legislators to actually do something? Will it be Nov. 8?
Gil Beyer, Sandpoint
Vote for gun laws
In November, the people in Idaho will be voting to send three of the four people who represent Idaho in Washington. They need to be asked specifically if they are going to vote for any gun regulation. If so, then name what they are going to vote for. If they do not name any common sense legislation, do not vote for them. Two of them will be running again in two years. If you dislike who you voted for, change your vote. We are at war with a small minority who misuse guns! The Senate will not pass any gun regulation, and Senator Crapo and our two representatives have voted “no” on gun regulation.
Dennis G. Falk, Boise