Soapbox

By now, you may have heard there’ll be a nationwide “March for Our Lives” event on Sat., June 11. For Durango’s event, gather at Durango High School parking lot at 2 p.m. to hear a few speakers, and then march at 2:30 p.m. to the Durango Library in time to attend the 3rd Congressional District Candidate Event at 3 p.m.

You may hear some folks say that demonstrations and marches don’t change anything, and that our calls and letters don’t change anything. I call BS! You may remember that refrain from Emma Gonzalez, a Parkland, Fla., student who brought everyone to tears with her heartfelt pleas in February 2018, three days after she lost 17 friends to a gunman with an AR-15.

Here’s part of what she said: “The people in the government are lying to us, and us kids call BS. Lawmakers who sit in their House and Senate seats, funded by the NRA, telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this. We call BS. They say tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. They say that us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS. If you agree, register to vote and contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind.”

Join us to grieve and to march on June 11. Wear orange if you can. – Karen Pontius, Durango

Lessons to be learned

The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, shows the need to restrict the sale of assault weapons to just the military and police.

The shooting revealed numerous factors contributed to the massacre, including warning signs that were missed on social media, the fact the school was not secured and police showing ineptitude in doing their job.

Somehow, social media posts should be monitored for potential shooter comments, and people should report these warning signs to authorities.

Schools should have entrances reinforced and locked, and only one entrance should be used. Alarm systems should be installed on all entrances except the main entrance. Weaponizing and training a few teachers/administrators should be evaluated. Why wasn’t the Uvalde school police officer in the school at the time of the shooting?

Nineteen Texas police officers stood in a hallway outside the Uvalde school classrooms for about 48 minutes waiting for a tactical police force to arrive. During that time, students made 911 calls while sporadic shots were heard in the classrooms. These officers should have shot open the door and broken windows to confront the shooter. Local police officers should not be waiting for tactical support but should immediately stop the shooter. – Donald Moskowitz, Londonderry, N.H.

Enough is enough

For many years, I have sent postcards and letters, which are likely never opened, to the White House about kitchen table topics. Thankfully, my concerns have been responded to, from Biden in March 2013 about the Sandy Hook School mass murder and Biden in May 2022.

Hopefully, after more than two decades of mass shootings, desperately needed solutions from both sides of the aisle will stop the gun madness in the only nation on Earth that has tragically kicked the can way too long.

My two cents is to have all of our school staff lock doors. Apparently, a side door in the most recent Texas school massacre was unlocked by a teacher. Then, it took law enforcement 77 minutes to finally neutralize the 18-year-old killer. He recently bought assault rifles on his birthday and had enough ammo to kill thousands. When is enough, enough? Now, now, now. – Sally Florence, Durango

Get real on guns

In other countries, people suffer from mental health issues. Those countries do not have mass murders every week.

Other countries have angry youth bent on social revenge. They don’t have gun outlets where it is permissible to sell assault rifles to troubled 18-year-olds.

Other countries have a gun culture. Those countries have managed to ban 30round clips and semi-automatic militarystyle weapons.

Why are we the only country in the world where slaughtering school children and murdering shoppers has become commonplace? Why is the U.S. so broken when it comes to regulating guns?

A study tracking public assaults from 1994-2019 in which four or more people died found that the U.S. had nearly three times the number of mass shootings as the next 17 countries combined. If the record is expanded from before 1994 to 2022, the disparity is even more shocking. And yet our political leaders seem paralyzed to enact commonsense regulation.

“... since 1975, more Americans have died from guns – including suicides, murders and accidents – than in all the wars in United States history, going back to the American Revolution,” writes New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristoff. That is an appalling statistic. Is that the freedom the Second Amendment guarantees?

“Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Remember that old saw? People who kill people use guns. That’s the bitter reality. Limit the availability of guns, and gun violence decreases. Here’s a thought experiment from Times journalist German Lopez, paraphrased: • If more toasters are available, more people would use toasters. • If more cars are available, more people would use cars.

Now put guns in that sentence. It’s obvious to the point of banality.

If more guns are available, more people would use guns. But in the U.S., stating the obvious has become a political landmine. Limit gun availability, and shootings of all types decrease. That is irrefutable. Nobody is calling for a gun-free nation. Yet, gun advocates put more value on the broadest possible interpretation of a minor freedom granted by the Second Amendment than they do blood-soaked classrooms and bodystrewn churches and grocery stores. Such priorities question everything a society based on morality and the rule of law values. Because some nut job was able to buy an assault weapon and 200 rounds of ammo, another dozen families are plunged into grief. Why do we allow such senseless, preventable tragedy to continue stalking our land?

We’ve tried sending “thoughts and prayers” to victims of gun violence. It hasn’t worked. Let’s try another approach. We cannot stop gun violence, but we can dramatically decrease it through commonsense regulation, including: 1. Stringent mandatory background checks and a week-long waiting period. Impulse shootings would disappear. 2. Red flag laws – A court-ordered temporary confiscation of guns and ammunition from those threatening themselves or others. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted such laws. Why hasn’t every state? 3. Age restrictions – people must be at least 21 years old to buy any weapon and at least 25 if the buyer has a drug, alcohol or violence conviction. A disproportionate number of mass killings are committed by young men. 4. No sales to anyone with a history of threats or violence. 5. Ban on assault style weapons and multiple round clips. These weapons are designed for use in a military conflict. They have no place in our society.

How do any of these proposals place an unfair burden on law-abiding gun owners?

Politicians claim enacting gun legislation would be “political suicide.” The political suicide of every politician is preferable to the homicide of one more 10-year-old who went to school thinking she was safe. – john van becay, Aurora

During “Gun Violence Awareness Days,” many across the country wear orange to signify the public health crisis associated with gun violence; to commemorate the many lives lost to gun violence; to show solidarity with families who have lost loved ones to gun violence; and to remind us of the fact that every year, on average, more than 17,000 children and teens are shot.

Unbelievably, gun violence has become the No. 1 cause of death for children in our country. We don’t need to live with gun violence in this country. We can do better for our community and our children by finding sensible solutions, educating our citizens about safe gun storage and working toward ways to reduce the number of gun deaths, including those from suicides and accidental shootings.

There is a role for all of us in protecting our children from gun violence. Let’s tell our leaders that we want them to pass common sense gun safety legislation to make our communities, homes, schools, places of worship, hospitals, movie theaters, concert halls, grocery stores and every other place where our citizens gather, safe from the horrors of gun violence.

Wear Orange to Commemorate Durango Gun Safety Awareness Days from June 3-11.