Letters to the Editor (Feb. 20)

More thoughts on Florida shooting

I agree that the horrific shootings must be stopped, but the problem is not with the guns but with the shooters.

Guns themselves are not dangerous until there is a finger on the trigger and a deranged person holding the gun. Getting rid of guns because someone gets shot is as logical as getting rid of cars because some lunatic chooses to drive a car into a crowd of shoppers.

We need to be more proactive and report suspicious behavior, then insist action be taken.

Assault weapons should be available to the military. Period.

Yes, you have the right to defend your home, to hunt and to shoot at a range for fun; you do not have the right to kill our children; you do not have the right to kill theater or concert goers.

Yes, blame it on poor mental health care; but the responsibility, not blame, is the true name of the game. Blame does nothing. It is about responsibility — that of gun owners, sellers and all levels of government.

Will you get behind the kids? Business owners should allow people to walk out briefly in support. Parents should encourage their children to support the “march.” Schools should encourage a walk out.

Our leaders in Congress. the executive and judicial branches, should get their noses out of the NRA’s backside, take care of the mental health issues and get back to what the Second Amendment was meant for: defending your home and hunting. Do you believe it was intended for mass shootings?

I have to agree with Mr. Laney (Monday’s Letters) that there is a problem beyond the number and availability of guns.

We have a cultural problem that promotes violence and a “Me” mentality that sets the stage for the mass shootings we have seen. There have always been guns available and young people have always had access to the. It was not unusual to see long guns on a rack in the pickup window and most of the time they were loaded.

The difference between then and now is that we never considered using them to shoot people. Today, we have realistic violent games available where you get points for killing as many as you can and movies and TV shows that present violence as being an everyday normal thing. We have become desensitized to violence. It has become natural.

Until we as a nation decide to address that issue, all of the gun bans and “common-sense” gun laws will have negligible effect. When we take away the glorification of violence and start relearning how to live together without the divisiveness we have today, then we will have taken a major step toward curtailing gun violence without changing gun laws.

As a person with a manageable, hereditary, controllable mental illness (bipolar syndrome), I have also been a volunteer in mental health for some 40 years and have strong feelings about it.

I have seen many people with mental illnesses of virtually all diagnoses become productive citizens, accessing mutually supportive friendships, with education funded largely by scholarships. They get jobs and become valued, productive citizens — even proud to be taxpayers. As a successful businessman, I, too, am one. Never in my experience have I witnessed violent episodes, as these people are protective of their supportive environment, therapy, and friends. It is a fact that most of the mentally ill are victims, not perpetrators, passive not active, except in their efforts toward management of their situation toward productive citizenship.

So it is with considerable concern that I view uneducated fears and opinions of rare violent mentally ill people, and mention of extreme measures against a majority of a peaceful population that deserve our support, not ignorant condemnation as proposed by even the President.

Transparency

Kris Kobach saying Kansas elections are safe because voting machines generate a paper tape is laughable. What good is a paper trail if he won't allow it to be audited?

Would he only allow an audit if the winner was a Democrat? We should not elect someone like this as our governor.

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 4:39 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Feb. 20)."