Scores and scores of letters on the shooting deaths of 26 at a Connecticut elementary school. Here's a sampling:
Is today finally the day we stop entrenching ourselves and shouting at each other around the issue of guns? Can the shock and grief of Newtown change the conversation to an impassioned and respectful discourse on a Bill of Responsibilities?
Let us unite as a people around parents’ rights to bear their children in their arms to their cradles not to their graves.
We cannot accept threadbare arguments on political positions. Let us insist our Governor-elect Pat McCrory and our North Carolina legislature engage in an open and vigorous conversation on solutions we all can live with, lest our children continue to die. Sound-bite fear rhetoric will not work, for we are burying our little children.
The time has come for the NRA to come to the table with real solutions for comprehensive, responsible gun laws that raise the level of gun ownership to professional standards, not unlike those for pharmacists, nurses and doctors. After all, a gun is the power of life and death.
Let us create a society where a kindergartner’s right to life is never subordinate to the Second Amendment.
Keith Sexton
Burlington
-------------------
According to gun buffs, school should become sort of a no-man land. Each classroom a bunker, say, and patrols of assault-weapon-armed teachers up and down the halls. Maybe a patrol-in-force out into the parking lot every 24 hours.
If so, let’s make sure all the kids wear steel pots and flack jackets, because if the school is attacked, they are likely to be caught in crossfire. Yeah, friendly fire to go along with that of the crazies.
While I grew up with guns, 12 gauges and 22s, and carried and used an M-l in Korea in the early ’50s, I have to wonder whether it wouldn’t be more sensible to simply say no to these banana-clipped assault weapons being so readily available.
Don Taylor
Raleigh
------------------------------
The mass killings happening in our country are terrible, especially when innocent children are involved.
Our whole country is mourning for these innocent children and rightfully so.
But why does our country allow for the mass killings of millions of innocent babies?
That could be the reason for these things happening in our country.
Guns are not the reason. The reason is that our country has left God, and we are paying for it.
Our country is murdering thousands of innocent babies every day. Think about that, but when something like this happens, everyone is trying to find blame, and the only blame is our country has forgotten God.
And if we do not come back to Him, it is only going to get worse.
Billy Moss
Zebulon
------------------------
Madison wrote, and in 1791 the young country agreed, that the population had the right to form a militia and bear arms.
Assault weapons are horrendously lethal. In today’s society, anyone operating a piece of machinery capable of killing is required to undergo training for the proper and safe operation of that equipment, physiological testing and periodic proficiency/safety review.
An aircraft pilot is so required for even a small plane could be a weapon of mass destruction if flown into a packed ballpark or football arena.
Any and all people owning such weapons must be required to keep these arms under lock and key as to ensure there is no unauthorized use.
This needs to be retroactive to ensure those weapons currently owned do not fall into the hands of those untrained, underage, unlicensed or just plain nuts.
Thomas Ragusa
Wake Forest
-----------------------------
Friday we all witnessed the tragic deaths of 20 children and six adults – killed at their school by a deeply disturbed young man using deadly automatic weapons. Everyone at the school will be scared by this terrible act. Lives are broken, and some may never heal.
I can only begin to imagine the depth of the pain of those involved, including the family of the gunman.
We, as a nation, are unwilling to look at the root causes of the problem of violence in our society for we live in a culture of violence.
I wish there were simple solutions that would stop such tragedies. They happen again and again, and we pretend like there is nothing that we can do. There are things that we can do.
We can stop using violence to solve our problems. We can increase the availability of mental health services. And, yes, despite what the White House spokesman says, it is time to talk about reasonable gun control.
While it is unrealistic to think that these actions will stop all gun violence, first steps are needed. We owe it to the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School and our children as well.
Randy Best
Leader, Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle
Durham
------------------------------
The NRA has a slogan, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” That may be true, but people with semi-automatic assault rifles can kill a lot of people, and quickly. That’s why these weapons were designed for the military.
It’s time for responsible hunters, target shooters, gun collectors and veterans like me to speak up to our legislators and stand up to the NRA. We need to ban these weapons as well as magazines that hold more than six rounds. If a hunter needs 30 rounds to get his buck, he should stay out of the woods.
Target shooters normally load only one round at a time.
If a collector wants a Bushmaster in his collection, it can be a disabled one.
And veterans know the damage a .223 round can inflict.
For those who feel the need for self-defense, try a Louisville Slugger.
Bob Brown
Cary
------------------------
Did you know that 74 percent of NRA funding comes from munitions manufacturers? So the NRA needs to be understood as a lobbying organization to sell more guns and ammo. It also makes the proud and paying NRA members little more than pawns in a big and increasingly deadly money game.
Be proud, NRA members! Be proud.
Charlie Cawley
Raleigh
--------------------
In light of the recent school shooting in Connecticut, I would like to address what I perceive as a major flaw in the Wake County school security system.
I resigned my bus driver position on Oct. 9 with my final driving date of Oct. 23. No one ever asked for my ID badge, which has no expiration date and allows me free access to any school in the Wake County system.
On Nov. 30, I voluntarily turned in my badge and asked for a receipt to protect myself if it were lost. I could have entered any school unchallenged.
My question for people responsible for security is to consider: “How many ex-employees still have their badges allowing access to schools and what if they fell into the wrong hands?
John Check
Holly Springs
---------------------
Why are we shocked by the shooting violence at Newtown? Our government promotes the use of killing. Capital punishment. Euthanasia. Killing of babies. With the making of killing legal. we promote its use by others.
I believe in gun control, but it will not solve the use of violence when millions approve of it on a daily basis.
Jerome Feltz
Wake Forest
--------------------------
It is difficult to describe the horror of the shootings in Newtown. Most of us are in shock. Soon the blaming will start. Some will want to do away with Second Amendment of the Constitution. Others will argue for people control rather than gun control.
Missing in these arguments is the case for stronger support for our mental health services and professionals. The kind of disturbance that led this young man to murder his mother and many others can be detected and treated.
I think that putting more resources into mental health is more important to this state than a new park.
Lyman Ferrell
Chapel Hill
-----------------------
America’s permissive obsession with assault weapons is an egregious affront to civil society. The 2nd Amendment, written during an age that pre-dates the Elmer Fudd gun, is a wordsmith’s riddle yet to be solved.
A vocal minority rationalizes, without consideration of consequence, its right to own these weapons of war and blood sport. This ordnance is good for absolutely nothing!
Unfortunately, our judiciary lacks discernment, and our legislative bodies lack sound reasoning and spine. Where is the rage?
When do the primordial urges of the few weapon-wielding gunslingers trump the liberties of a safe, civil society? The constitution and its amendments are imperfect – they have been amended! Change it, and remove the NRA’s disingenuous crutch. Ban the sale of high-capacity clips, certain ammunition and semi-automatic and automatic weapons.
The gun lobby will howl, ignite a keg of displaced indignation and blow smoke. March through the screen.
Responsible corporations and outlets should immediately clear their shelves and stop the sale of these tools of terror. Manufacturers should offer buy-backs. Starve the market.
Unfortunately, the weapons already owned will not dissipate, but one can hope for greater responsibility among the toting community. As these factions evolve, we can also hope the urge to use these weapons will near extinction.
Scott Gilchrist
Angier
-------------------------
As we watch yet another mass shooting story unfold, I shake my head in disbelief – not that it has happened again, but that we as a nation continue to allow violence with guns to destroy lives and communities.
If this horror doesn’t turn (even NRA-funded) politicians’ attention to controlling guns, I give up. We all share the blame of a criminally insane society.
Dan Gottlieb
Durham
-----------------------
The Connecticut school massacre points out America’s greatest need: We must make God and the one-working-family adult our primary objective.
American moms and dads must discard their desires for “more stuff” and focus on giving their children more love, more one-on-one time, more emphasis on putting God back into the family.
Gun control is not the answer. God and close families with one parent always at home with their children is the answer.
Forget big cars and big homes and big titles and big paychecks. Give your children your time, your love, and all of the family needs to get into a godly church.
Every parent, grandparent, godly family members, please let your feelings be known without fear of ridicule.
Come on, you men of the family, start manning up! That will help end violence in America.
John Gunderson
Wake Forest
----------------------
I wonder how long we will continue to sanction the practice of child sacrifice just so people can have semi-automatic weapons. It is chilling.
Logan Jones
Raleigh
--------------------------
At almost the same time as the horrendous attack in Connecticut, a man attacked children in a primary school in China. He wounded 22 with his knife. No one died.
Twenty children and six adults died in Connecticut from two semi-automatic pistols. We might always have unstable and violent people, but why do we arm them so well?
Nancy Jones
Chapel Hill
-------------------------
How awful that yet again our TV and newspapers are filled with such horror. But let us take a look at what so many of our growing minds, our children’s lives are filled with. The violence on TV, the video games and the movies.
One of last year’s top-grossing movies was “The Hunger Games,” a movie about children killing children, and adults in the movie thinking this was something to be congratulated. I came out of that movie literally feeling sick to my stomach and amazed that this movie was being in any way praised as entertainment.
Peace in the world needs to start at home, and children and teenagers, our future leaders, need to be led to believe in better values and as adults we need to show the “entertainment” business that this is not what we want for young minds.
Felicity Kemp
Chapel Hill
--------------------------
The Connecticut school massacre brings back close calls that I experienced as an elementary school teacher and principal for 30 years.
I remember a fellow teacher wrestling a loaded rifle away from a third-grader who intended to shoot the principal.
I recall standing in the schoolhouse door barring a family from entering as I prayed for the police to arrive. The family was angry because their sexually abused daughter had been placed in a protective foster home.
I shake now as I remember conferencing with an armed father who kept his daughter out of a school because he believed black FBI helicopters were circling his home.
Finally, there was a father who charged into school ready to shoot me because his son did not get off at his bus stop. I found the child asleep on a parked school bus.
How heartbreaking, but schools are not immune to the ills and troubles of society, and answers are not easily found, but something needs to be done.
While painful, we need to take positive steps to reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies from occurring again, especially in an elementary school of 6- to 10-year-olds.
William Krupp
Raleigh
------------------------
I will no longer be silent about being pro-gun control. It should be harder to purchase a gun than Sudafed. Handguns should be made even harder to purchase than hunting rifles.
If you have a gun in your home, then you should be required to have at least $2 million liability insurance for each gun in your home. If that gun is used in any type of crime, you should be held legally responsible. There should be a five-day waiting period when you apply to purchase a gun so that a deeper background check can be done.
The gun-show loophole must be closed. Ammunition purchases should also be registered, and if these purchases are online, which should be discontinued immediately, then local law enforcement should be made aware of any such purchases.
It should be vital that all local law enforcement know not only what kind of guns might be in your home but also how much ammunition is present.
No other family or community should have to bear the pain that Blacksburg, Va.; Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; and now Newtown, Conn., is suffering. If not now, when?
Leigh LeClair
Cary
--------------------
Long after the precious children in Connecticut have been buried because of “evil” in our country, the tears will continue for many of us.
The rhetoric about gun control will once again go silent, as it should.
Guns do not kill people, evil does.
Even if every gun in this country was confiscated, evil will never take a holiday. Evil is everywhere. Let’s face it, evil can be in your house of worship, your local Boy Scout Troop, your own child’s school, or your elected politician. I can go on and on.
Evil is everywhere. Evil kills, not guns.
I sometimes wonder that with all the crying in this country and the world over these senseless deaths, does anyone from the ACLU cry?
A nation is in mourning, yet this organization continues to pull God out of our classrooms, schools, courthouses and anywhere else “Our Creator” is needed.
Leave the guns alone.
Let’s put an end to the ACLU, and let’s bring goodness and love back into a country where evil flourishes.
Maybe, just maybe, we will survive as a nation. God Bless America.
Wayne Muller
Selma
--------------------------------
Until May, my daughter was a legacy student in the top 10 percent of her junior class at Peace, receiving scholarships and academic honors. Due to the elimination of her major and the breaking of the university’s promise to “teach through the major,” she transferred, losing funding as well as a year of credits.
I wish, when journalists report the statistics that William Peace University President Debra M. Townsley bandies about, they would report on the percentage of students transferring out of WPU whether or not those students transferred to another all-women’s college.
The emphasis on the coed matter has shrouded students’ genuine concerns, originating as soon as Townsley and her Nichols College associates arrived at 15 E. Peace Street in 2010, well in advance of the announcement to go coed and change the school’s mission and name.
Articles such as yours Dec. 10 perpetuate the myth that the only difference between Peace College and WPU is that now men matriculate there. In our experience, the cultural and moral tone, the mission, the traditions and the academic standards and offerings are so dramatically altered to effectively render WPU an institution completely distinct from Peace College; the only thing the two institutions share is an address.
Susan Murray
Wake Forest
----------------------
Since the Columbine shooting, The N&O lists six more instances of shootings in schools. That’s an average of once every two years, and, after every shooting, people talk about what can be done to limit easy access to guns. And eventually the rhetoric dies down, and no significant legislation is passed.
Here’s a prediction: The same thing will happen again, and the next time, a year or two from now, more innocents will die and the cycle will repeat.
I would love to be wrong, but in this gun-loving country (the U.S. gun death rate per capita is 40 times higher than the United Kingdom’s and 100 times higher than Japan’s), we can’t even pass a ban on assault weapons.
It’s pathetic.
Stephen Norton
Cary
------------------------
A government’s No. 1 responsibility is to protect its citizens. It must protects its people from threats both internal and external; otherwise, it has no reason to exist. If our congressmen, senators and other elected officials do not remove automatic weapons from our lives, they are failing the people and should be removed from office immediately.
Reece Schuler
Chapel Hill
-----------------------------
Is today finally the day we stop entrenching ourselves and shouting at each other around the issue of guns? Can the shock and grief of Newtown change the conversation to an impassioned and respectful discourse on a Bill of Responsibilities?
Let us unite as a people around parents’ rights to bear their children in their arms to their cradles not to their graves.
We cannot accept threadbare arguments on political positions. Let us insist our Governor-elect Pat McCrory and our North Carolina legislature engage in an open and vigorous conversation on solutions we all can live with, lest our children continue to die. Sound-bite fear rhetoric will not work, for we are burying our little children.
The time has come for the NRA to come to the table with real solutions for comprehensive, responsible gun laws that raise the level of gun ownership to professional standards, not unlike those for pharmacists, nurses and doctors. After all, a gun is the power of life and death.
Let us create a society where a kindergartner’s right to life is never subordinate to the Second Amendment.
Keith Sexton
Burlington
--------------------
I hope it has been noticed that if this mother had not had three guns in her house, she might still be alive.
Hjordis Tourian
Durham
-------------------------
While we try to absorb the massacre in Newtown, the only thing ultimately important is what we do to show those little babies and teachers their lives mattered. What could we do?
1. Teach parents much more about how to identify troubled children, with help from well-trained teachers.
2. Teach parents the only socially acceptable thing to do with troubled kids is to get them help
3. Teach parents they can be held ultimately accountable for children under their control
4. Make it nearly impossible for households with declared mentally ill people to obtain weapons; we seem to be able to have such a system for other troubled people.
Finally, can’t we conduct some serious research on why young men 17-23 put on paramilitary uniforms, grab a cache of weapons and ammo and go out and slaughter innocents? We seem to spend a lot of money on the reproductive habits of mice, but not much on this.
Why don’t we ask the NRA to fund it instead of the hundreds of millions it spends on political campaigns to perpetuate itself so it can raise money and spend it all again? Isn’t that a fair trade for the costs of the 2nd Amendment?
Geoff Williams
Raleigh
--------------------------------
If only there were something we could do to prevent more children from being slaughtered in our schools. Obviously, we can't re-institute an assault-weapons ban or close gun-show loopholes. Do that and we may as well burn the Constitution. We can't shame the entertainment industry into toning down the violence, or impose restrictions if they don't do something voluntarily. That might cut into their profits, and that's an affront to capitalism.
If it's a choice between protecting children from being massacred or infringing on the right of an individual fire six bullets per second, the answer is obvious.
Mark Slattery
Raleigh
------------------------
While still in shock over Newtown, Conn., I have just read that the State of Michigan's House and Senate under Republican leadership, has just sent a bill to the Republican Govenor that allows concealed weapons to be carried into schools and churches. It seems to me that the NRA wants our country to go back to the days of the Wild West. Yes, I know times have changed but it is time to return to civilization--not to continue on our downward sprial. The Republican leadership of our country should lead in making gun control changes because of their past history of supporting the NRA in their fight against gun conrol.
Harvey Davis
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
As we all mourn the lost children and brave adults in Newtown, the gun control debate is again heating up. Let's add the entertainment industry to this discussion because we have raised an entire generation with a steady diet of extreme violence in motion pictures, TV programming, video games, and the internet. Twenty-year-olds have used their thumbs to fire their assault rifles to kill thousands of enemies only to push the reset button to bring them back to life.
Guns, and other weapons of destruction, are used every hour in these kids make-believe world with no consequences at all. Why are we surprised when a mentally disturbed person follows this conditioning into the real world, a world with no reset button?
I pray not one more innocent life must end with a bullet. However, talk about controlling guns in America is only one aspect of this deadly problem and our discussion must be extended to include all of the make believe violence that is prolific in our society.
Reese Edwards
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, four African-American girls were killed by a bomber at the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham. After years of violence, this act of racial terrorism targeting children marked a turning point in the Civil Rights movement and contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
And now, nearly 50 years later, we can hope and pray the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary will again unite Americans to take action not only to protect our children but also change the course of American history.
William Gray
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
The families of mentally ill persons suffer greatly. These families are the benefactors of the erratic changes in behavior, menacing environments, and the absolute lack of a support system. It's difficult to grasp that the shortcomings in Americas mental health system render it nearly non-existent. The political argument in our backyard is over how best to use the property of the former Dorothea Dix Hospital for the mentally ill. Former residents of this beautiful campus are now scattered all over, including homeless sites. Those in power want to make it not just another park, but one that rivals New Yorks Central Park. They say the mental health system is broken. I agree, but is there not at least one political conversation that focuses on the lack of effective mental health delivery coupled with the lack of ineffective gun laws?
Another park - how sad that some mentally ill person, perhaps a former Dix resident or nameless 20-year-old young, might go on a rampage that kills and maims many of those future park-goers because the treatment system is totally gone. Plus, we love our guns and while a single law cant fix the mass shooting problems, you have to start somewhere.
Gale Isaacs
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
I grew up as a hunter, my family ate everything we killed. My dad taught over 1,000 young people "hunter safety," a program of the National Rifle Association. In his 80s, he said, "This is not my NRA." He was right. The opening phrase of the second amendment, about a "well regulated militia," has disappeared from their view. The NRA and their supporters now, today, have an opportunity to be a part of this conversation from the get go, to get on the right side of history. If they choose not to do that, and continue to advocate for wide distribution of military assault weapons, they will forever cast themselves as the villains. It's their choice.
Rev Steve Hickle
Raleigh
--------------------------
First, stop letting NRA lobbyists and paranoid fearful people dictate gun law decisions. Ban the selling of toy handguns. Handguns are made to kill people; they should not be a play toy. Ban selling guns at gun shows with no background checks. Ban the selling of semi and automatic weapons except to police and military.
Implement a gun buy-back program to get guns off the streets. Criminals want money, buy their guns.
Stop selling semi-automatic weapons at Walmart, Gander Sporting and Dicks Sporting Goods. These are not hunting guns, these are mass killing machines. If you need them to kill a deer, you are a lousy hunter.
Take away gun licenses from those who post target sights on people and say take them out. That is an irresponsible gun owner who should not be allowed to have guns. Put money into mental health treatment. I am a gun owner and support the second amendment. However, with rights come responsibilities. If you disagree, I could care less. The children of this country come before your paranoia and craziness.
Chuck Johnson
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
The stories of Sandy Hook Elementary survivors trickle out and I am struck by a common element enabling teachers to shield their students: small class sizes.
In one story, a teacher huddled her students into a bathroom, placing one on top of the toilet. Another teacher placed her children in a closet and still another hid children in closed cubbies.
In each story, there were only 15 children in the class.
How accurate these stories are, time will tell. Nevertheless, the number 15 is significant in that research out of Project Starr in Tennessee identify 15 as an ideal class size. The learning ideal aside, I dont think my son's elementary school teachers could fit the 25+ students in their classrooms in bathrooms or closets. I wonder also for the safety of students and teachers in trailers outside of the main building, would they get cues to protect children similarly?
Larger class sizes and trailers are commonplace for one reason: funding. Declining per pupil spending in Wake coupled with rising enrollments impinge on the ability to provide ideal learning environments. Now, there is another factor to consider as the debate to increase revenues circles on: safety.
Crystal Chambers
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
It just amazes me that President Obama and the media persist in blaming the tragedy on lack of gun control.
Gun control is not to blame. It is due to the degradation and destruction of the family and our loss of Christian values.
Divorce, the creation of the welfare state, the idea that we can have same sex marriages, philosophies that tell us that our children can dictate what they will or will not do, and the loss of the natural order of the family with the father at the head.
Separation of church and state whcih has been taken to the extreme by denying that we our entire society and its laws are based on the Bible. Childresn that can sing Kwanza and Hannukah songs in public schools but not Christmas songs.
The list could be endless.
We can expect more tragedies like this as the situation in the home continues to worsen.
Martin van Cleeff
Cary
---------------------------------------------------------
In the wake of the awful, senseless tragedy that occurred in Newtown CT, we ponder how this could happen.
It isn't a difficult question to answer.
Angry, misguided individuals, with the full cooperation of activist judges, have successfully sanitized our public schools of any mention of God.
He's been officially banned, leaving a gaping, desperate void.
We all know nature abhors a vacuum; and, in the absence of any vestige of God there can only be one thing that exists.
Coming to the point: with God completely removed, what comes rushing in to fill the space?
Evil.
Cassie McCullers
Raleigh
---------------------------------------------------------
