Readers React: America's do-nothing response to mass shootings

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Worshipers enter Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., four days after a mass shooting that claimed the lives of its pastor and eight others.

(David Goldman / Associated Press)

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People arrive for services at the Emanuel AME Church on Sunday in Charleston, S.C.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Patricia Bailey says a prayer at a memorial outside Emanuel AME Church on Saturday in Charleston, S.C. Thousands of mourners clutching red and white roses attended a vigil in the stunned city of Charleston on Friday to remember nine African American men and women shot dead by a suspected white supremacist.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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Police tape outside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., after the mass shooting inside Wednesday.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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People march in protest to the Confederate Museum in Charleston, S.C., on Saturday.

(Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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A framed photograph of one of the shooting victims is left with a message at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

(Curtis Compton / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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Members of Emanuel AME Church announce that services and Sunday school will go ahead as scheduled Sunday, four days after the pastor and eight other people were shot to death.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Allen and Georgette Sanders of McClellanville, S.C., pray Saturday morning outside Emanuel AME Church.

(Joseph Tanfani / Los Angeles Times)

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Thousands of people hold hands June 19 and sing”We Shall Overcome” during a prayer vigil for those killed Wednesday night at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Thousands of people gather for a city-sponsored prayer vigil for the nine victims of the Emanuel AME Church shooting at the College of Charleston TD Arena.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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A woman weeps outside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, June 19, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a sidewalk memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

(David Goldman / Associated Press )

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Marie Goff wipes away tears during a prayer vigil at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday for the victims of the previous day’s shooting at the city’s Emanuel AME Church.

(Grace Beahm / Associated Press)

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Keith McDaniel, pastor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, is surrounded by others in prayer for the victims of Wednesday’s shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

(TIM KIMZEY / Associated Press)

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The steeple of Emanuel AME Church rises above the street as a police officer tells a car to move as the area is closed off following Wednesday’s shooting.

(David Goldman / Associated Press)

June 19, 2015 9:38 AM PT

To the editor: Basically, we did nothing after the Columbine shooting in 1999. We did nothing after the attempted assassination of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. We did nothing after the Aurora, Colo., shooting in 2012, and we did absolutely nothing after the brutalization of the adults and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut later that year. (“Obama: U.S. must face up to the kind of violence that happened in Charleston,” June 18)

What we Americans do “best,” apparently, in resolving disagreements, arguments or different points of view is to resort to violence.

So why should we think anything will get done now that nine people were killed in South Carolina on Wednesday?

Rodney K. Boswell, Thousand Oaks

To the editor: As a Christian who believes in and cherishes the sanctity of all life on this planet, I was devastated to learn of the apparently racially motivated shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C.

We as a nation still have a long way to go to resolve our racial issues and intolerance. Local, state and federal authorities should commit as many resources as necessary to investigate why the alleged shooter did it and ensure that justice is done. We, as Americans, must all introspectively reflect on this horrible crime and ask what we can do to heal the wounds that continue to divide our great nation.

I offer my deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.

Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nev.

To the editor: The seeds of the lock-and-load society created by the National Rifle Assn. and nurtured by the Republican Party are bearing fruit. Nine more Americans have been killed, this time in a church while praying, by a formerly law-abiding citizen with a gun.

Guns rule in every town. The question is no longer “Will your city experience a mass shooting?” but rather “When will your city experience a mass shooting?”

One wonders if this is what the framers had in mind back in 1791 when they adopted the 2nd Amendment.

Frank Ferrone, El Cajon, Calif.

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