After the shooting in Texas, I feel like I’m living in a nightmare. If the killing of innocent children and teachers isn’t horrific enough, it comes on the heels of the shooting in Buffalo.
I have an unpopular solution – ban the sale of semi-automatics to the private sector. This means gun shops, gun shows and online. Make it mandatory for current owners to turn them over to local authorities. Compensate them with either the purchase price or offer some other incentive, such as trading for a less-lethal weapon.
I grow tired of hearing from advocates of automatic weapons that it is their right under the Second Amendment, a law which is archaic and no longer viable. Obviously, the Founding Fathers couldn’t foresee the invention of assault weapons, nor how sick our nation would become. I have empathy for the majority of gun owners who are responsible, and would never infringe on their right to have guns, but semi-automatics are different. They aren’t necessary to anyone except the military and law enforcement. What are they good for? Hitting a target? Is that reason enough to have these horrible weapons available to almost anyone? Is it worth the pain and suffering felt across the country?
Kids are afraid to go to school and parents are afraid to send them. Millions of Americans fear leaving their homes. It makes me sick to turn on the news and see another tragic situation resulting in the deaths of innocent people. Why? Not for the right to carry guns, but for the right to own these killing machines. So, I say, enjoy your Second Amendment rights; the children in Texas and Sandy Hook, as well as hundreds of others, paid dearly for it. They made the ultimate sacrifice.
Linda Bussiere
Rindge