Letters to the Editor: Super Bowl parades and schools aren’t safe. Why do we let this gun madness continue?
To the editor: Besides the unspeakable tragedy in Kansas City — a mass shooting, something with which we have become all too familiar — another massacre was averted this week when a student an an Ontario high school alerted authorities that a fellow student might be planning a mass shooting.
Police arrested the student, who had made threats of violence against the school. The Ontario police chief praised the student and repeated the mantra, “See something, say something.”
Well, most Americans with compassion and common sense have been seeing and saying something about assault weapons for decades. Instead of listening to the people, our leaders have kicked the can down the road far enough to where our kids are expected to save their own lives by speaking up.
What an incredibly asinine approach. Instead of a total ban on these killing machines, the country chooses to take the weapons back, one by one, when someone sees something and says something.
Are full-body-armor school uniforms next?
Rod Lawrence, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: Regarding the Kansas City shooting, can we please elect leaders who will do something about gun violence?
No celebration, parade or any other public gathering is safe anymore. Yet all we hear is that Russia and China are a threat.
The real threat is here, right now. Do something!
Kathryn Miller, Goleta
..
To the editor: Have we become so desensitized to mass shootings in the U.S. that when 22 victims are shot during the Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, the news (with the exception of a photo) is relegated to the last page of the main section of the L.A. Times’ print edition?
Joel Miller, Torrance
..
To the editor: Merely saying the words “thoughts and prayers” after a mass shooting without specifying what thoughts you have and what you are praying for is an extremely hollow gesture.
It is time that we share thoughtful ideas on how to keep our children and citizens safe from further violence. It is time that we share what specifically we are praying for.
Mindlessly stating the words “thoughts and prayers” has become a meaningless gesture that has come to signify an endless string of deaths. And, without significant action, the phrase foreshadows many more deaths.
Ronald Kotkin, Laguna Beach
