Letters: Guns and the Senate: Days of Passion

To the Editor:

Re "A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip," by Gabrielle Giffords (Op-Ed, April 18):

April 17, 2013, was a "day of infamy" in the Senate, a day when almost half the Senate voted shamefully against doing anything to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them. The senators who voted "no" showed no empathy for those who lost loved ones to gun violence at Newtown, Aurora, Tucson and other places all over our country.

It is up to us, the electorate, to remember this shameful day and how the senators voted. Their allegiance to power, the National Rifle Association, gun manufacturers and gun sellers kept them from doing what 90 percent of the American people wanted done. They should have to pay a political price when they are up for re-election.

Courageous Gabrielle Giffords, we are with you. We will keep the gun issues alive. We shall overcome!

PAUL L. WHITELEY Sr.

Louisville, Ky., April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

As my wife read Gabrielle Giffords's eloquent and impassioned words to me on our way to work this morning, she was overcome with emotion. We both were. We are elementary-school teachers, and our young, innocent students are among those for whom the senators in their vote against expanding background checks have shown a callous, cruel and cynical disregard.

Today I will look into my students' eyes in a new way — with the knowledge that our Congress has voted in favor of the criminals who would kill us, rather than for the rights we thought all rational Americans were working toward — to live in safety and without fear in our daily lives.

GREGORY McCRACKEN
Herndon, Va., April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

Since the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, average law-abiding citizens have been asked to undergo many security measures. We have packed our toiletries in tiny bottles, taken off our shoes and endured full body scans in order to board an airplane. We have faced pat-downs and metal detectors at concerts and sports events. Yet we will not ask a person wishing to purchase a gun to undergo a simple background check each and every time a gun is purchased.

Gabrielle Giffords is correct. We can no longer afford to be silent. In remembrance of the children in Newtown, and the moviegoers in Aurora, and the thousands of others who die each year as a result of firearms, we must speak loudly with our wallets and our votes.

DONNA ROTH
Princeton Junction, N.J., April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

Re "Gun Control Drive Blocked in Senate; Obama, in Defeat, Sees 'Shameful Day' " (front page, April 18):

This week could hardly offer a starker contrast between heroism and cowardice. First responders and bystanders in Boston displayed genuine bravery, risking their lives to help those injured by bombs planted by evildoers too cowardly even to claim responsibility.

Cowardice of a different sort was on display in Washington, where senators voted against background checks legislation, though they knew it should have been passed and would save lives, for fear of angering the National Rifle Association and possibly losing their jobs. I would be ashamed to be represented by such a coward.

SCOTT A. BIRNBAUM
Boston, April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

I have been a registered Republican for over 50 years and I served under two Republican presidents. Today, however, I have been embarrassed and dismayed by my party. The background check amendment was no panacea and it would not have prevented "the next massacre." But it might well have postponed that tragic event. It was an obvious and constructive step to which no serious, substantive objection was, or could have been, raised.

If some will claim that this view makes me a RINO — Republican in Name Only — I say, "RINOs, let us unite and put our hides on the line to save our party from itself."

DOUGLAS M. PARKER
Ojai, Calif., April 18, 2013

The writer served in senior positions as a lawyer in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

To the Editor:

The gun control movement completely fails to understand that the "gun lobby" is not the despised National Rifle Association. It is the nearly 100 million Americans who are unwilling to be disarmed by frightened people who are for the most part wholly ignorant about firearms.

LAURENCE FRANK
Hillsborough, Calif., April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

The shameful Senate vote on Wednesday makes clearer than ever the need for term limits. If senators were not paralyzed by the fear of not being re-elected, then maybe they would be brave enough to vote their consciences, or at least mind the wishes of their constituents.

ROBERT KOCHERSBERGER
Raleigh, N.C., April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

The only coherent argument against regulating guns is the one the National Rifle Association won't state publicly: Using background checks to keep the disqualified from buying guns hurts gun sales.

WILLIAM LORTON
Los Angeles, April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

Re "The Senate Fails Americans" (editorial, April 18):

The continued use of the Sandy Hook tragedy to promote gun control legislation is unseemly. Nothing in the failed background check legislation would have or could have prevented the attack at the school. The massacre of brave and caring adults and the 20 innocent children tears at the heart. Before that horror took place, Adam Lanza first shot his mother in the head. Clearly, he was seriously disturbed. We must make the case for mental health legislation, not only the guns.

ANTONIA TAMPLIN
Bronx, April 18, 2013

To the Editor:

The failure of the Senate to pass overwhelmingly popular, common-sense restrictions on gun trafficking is truly shameful. The background checks measure received "only" 54 votes. However, the requirement of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster is the true scandal. Until there is genuine reform of this rule, a determined, well-financed, craven or ignorant minority will continue to block progress on this or any other issue of vital concern. That is where outrage over this latest defeat should be directed.

ROBERT ELLSBERG
Maryknoll, N.Y., April 18, 2013

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Letters: Guns and the Senate: Days of Passion

Dengan url

http://opinimasyarakota.blogspot.com/2013/04/letters-guns-and-senate-days-of-passion.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Letters: Guns and the Senate: Days of Passion

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Letters: Guns and the Senate: Days of Passion

sebagai sumbernya