LETTERS

We can't afford continued inaction on guns

Posted 4/7/21

To the Editor: Mass murders have again shaken our sense of safety to shop for groceries and go about our daily activities with our children and grandchildren. Our nation's founding principle that we are all created equal and endowed with the unalienable

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LETTERS

We can't afford continued inaction on guns

Posted

To the Editor:

Mass murders have again shaken our sense of safety to shop for groceries and go about our daily activities with our children and grandchildren. Our nation’s founding principle that we are all created equal and endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is eroded and threatened every day by the unwanted intrusion of guns into our physical spaces and our emotional and psychological well being. Mass shootings occur daily in the U.S. – our apprehension, anxiety, and fears are real; they’re not based on unwarranted alarmism as pro-gun groups would like us to believe.

Christine Emba, in her February Washington Post opinion piece titled “We all know what guns are really for,” cuts to the essence of our gun violence epidemic: “The one factor that enables the overwhelming number of U.S. gun deaths, our routine mass murders, our lather-rinse-and-repeat cycle of grief, acrimony and forgetting is the ubiquity of the gun. It is an object simply performing the role it was meant to perform … Guns are for killing. This is their purpose; this is what they are designed and meant to do. When the question of gun control is viewed in light of that essential fact, the banality of our current debate – and our proposed ‘solutions’ – becomes scandalously clear.”

Assault weapons and large-capacity clips kill and maim as many humans as possible in the shortest amount of time; that is their purpose – they were not meant for hunting or self-defense in a civil society. And anyone who justifies the value of guns based on the tax revenue generated versus the fact that the second-leading cause of death for people under the age 19 is from a firearm-related injury is misguided.

Our elected representatives have a moral and ethical duty, not a budget responsibility, to regulate the manufacture, sale, distribution, licensing, storage and types of weapons permitted to be purchased, owned and carried in the public commons. Abdication of this responsibility will ensure that another 35,000 people will die needlessly this year – no amount of tax revenue and personal pleasure can ever equate to the loss of life.

The emotional, psychological and physical health, well being, and safety of our citizens require action. Continued inaction by our representatives will result in more deaths and trauma to our community.

Tom Wojick

Cranston

letters, guns

Comments

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  • Atainsh

    I wholly disagree. Creating “gun free zones” and attempting to ban ownership of items has proven to be ineffective over and over again.

    Criminals don’t follow the law. It’s as simple as that.

    I hate to break it to you Mr. Wojick but this nation was founded upon the principals of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Your “what if” fears and “we need to proactively do something” attitude infringes upon my right to keep and bear arms and my liberties, and my pursuit of happiness.

    You don’t get to take away my natural, god given, rights. If you dislike freedom and liberty perhaps you should move to Canada or Great Briton.

    Saturday, April 10, 2021 Report this