Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Today's Letters: We have created a world too saturated with violence

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published April 18, 2007

The Virginia Tech shootings    

The shootings at Virginia Tech are a vivid reminder of the pervasive violence that exists in our children's world. This should motivate us to take some concerted action. Each of us has allowed, for far too long, the acceptability of violence as being almost normal.

Yes, we get upset and rightfully so when events like the one Monday occur. But where are "we" during the intervening days? Every day too many children either directly witness or experience some form of violence in their lives. The costs are immeasurable, and for many they are lifelong.

What will it take for us to change the social landscape for our children? What are each of us willing to do? The constant exposure to various forms of violence erodes the development, learning and health of our children. These toxins destroy hope, dreams and lives. There must be a more definitive call to action to find solutions that mean something!

Michael Stone, Pinellas Park

Unarmed prey

Those who say we can't do anything to prevent horrific events such as happened Monday at Virginia Tech are just plain wrong.

Virginia Tech is a "gun-free zone." A student who brings a firearm onto school grounds risks expulsion or suspension.

We will never see the end of mass slayings until we get past the bizarre notion that rendering law-abiding citizens "prey" makes them safer. By all means, keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking it's possible to disarm everyone and thus prevent the next outrage. That sort of utopian delusion just sets us up by inviting us to remain unprepared.

It's time for us to grow up and face reality. Not all guns take lives; some of them save lives.

Frank Clarke, Oldsmar

College gunman's rampage

Prevention is not possible

I watched in disbelief while reporters grilled the Virginia Tech president on what precautions university officials had taken and what precautions they could have taken to prevent this senseless massacre. The answer is so simple I can't believe it eluded these "professional journalists": nothing!

In the days to come we'll hear the critics condemning the school's lockdown policy and any other precautionary plans school officials had. The truth is, nothing could have been done, constitutionally. Any drastic measures the school might have come up with would have been shot down by advocates of privacy rights.

As long as that's the case no school is safe. No shopping mall is safe. No place of employment is safe. As long as there is one crazy who deems it his destiny to murder as many people as he can, he will find a way.

There is simply no way to predict who, what, when or where the next nutcase will strike. Pray God this murderous rampage doesn't "inspire" some other loose cannon to steal the lives of any other innocent people.

Jack Karpan, New Port Richey

Guns too easy to get

There has been another senseless gun tragedy. More lives have been lost, many more even than in previous attacks.

So many promising lives were ended even before they really began. It once again sickens me, but sadly is not something unexpected or surprising anymore.

I believe that until we finally start understanding that we are entitled more to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" rather than the poorly regulated ability to purchase firearms whenever we choose, we will continue to see these horrific massacres escalate without end.

It also makes me wonder that, had it been Wayne LaPierre of the NRA staring down that barrel in his last moments of life, if his final words to his attacker would have been "I fully support your right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment."

Gary Aldrich, St. Petersburg

Left defenseless

Here we have still another horribly tragic slaughter on an educational campus with the loss of many precious lives. Why are these venues so often terrorized? Please consider this: By legislative fiat, everyone on these campuses, except police, has been denied their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, thus leaving them defenseless in the face of these insane assaults.

Sadly, also irretrievably lost, are the victims' rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Robert Jay Benson, Palm Harbor

Deadly amendment

Why do we as a nation act so surprised every time a lunatic grabs a gun and goes on a killing rampage? As long as we misinterpret the Second Amendment, i.e. believing that everyone has a right to bear arms without restriction, we will suffer these losses.

We must pass strong federal legislation to control the use of weapons and how they are made available. The NRA has too large a stranglehold on our Congress and executive branch. We must break it or not be surprised when we read about mass murders over our morning cereal.

On a local note, I hope those Florida legislators pushing legislation to force employers to allow their workers to bring guns to the work site lost their appetite for such nonsense.

Martin Daugherty, St. Petersburg

Learn to live together

Searching for answers, looking for reasons to murderous behavior? It's nothing new. Throughout the ages, the killing of another human has been justified by a hundred different reasons. After the slaughter, one fact remains: They are gone forever. Do we turn our schools and other public facilities into self-imposed prisons - pat downs, searches, body scans, cameras following your every movement? Where do we go from here?

We came up with a new term back in the early '90s. Remember "Going postal"? Now going to college is taking on a whole new and horrible meaning.

Stopping the bad guy before the fact is not easy. Nothing is easy. The answer is not fencing ourselves in, putting up walls and operating behind locked doors or looking at our neighbors with suspicious eyes.

For every crazy, there are a thousand good guys. People who care, people who have good in their hearts. If you want to be around great people, join a service organization. Helping others is beneficial for the soul: It produces good karma.

When we can learn to live together in love and harmony the killing will stop. The key word is "learn." It's a learned behavior: Teach it to your children.

Bill Coleman, Dunedin

Imagine terrorists

The massacre at Virginia Tech was horrifying. If one man could kill so many in so short a time and create such havoc, imagine what trained terrorist squads with better weaponry and with similar targets could do. A dozen squads of six armed men apiece could kill thousands if they hit crowded malls, schools, sports stadiums or any venue where masses go to gather.

I think Homeland Security must extend its scale of thinking. We need to create a new public-order force. Perhaps we could get volunteers of trained ex-military men at command levels to address the unexpected. Just as we have neighborhood crime watch volunteers, we need volunteers to oversee every place where masses gather. Targets of opportunity must be manned by determined defenders.

Robert B. Fleming, St. Petersburg

A shocked nation grieves April 17, editorial

More to mourn

My daughter is a professor at Virgina Tech, which made the shooting event very real to me. President Bush expressed his "shock and sorrow" over the shooting tragedy, yet every 12 days in Iraq we experience a similar loss of America's young people.

When will the president "get it" that our nation grieves three times each month over 30-plus deaths. It is time to "pledge the federal government's help" in extricating America from this unending war.

Ray Hoopes, Clearwater

Further silences

It was most fitting that both houses of Congress held a moment of silence for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Carrying this thought over, wouldn't it also be fitting if both house of Congress held a moment of silence daily for the men and women killed in action in Iraq?

Robert Rafferty, Sun City Center

[Last modified April 17, 2007, 21:38:28]