Letters

I write this letter to our community as a response to the recent tragic mass shootings happening throughout our country. The rhetoric and outrage expressed over these premeditated, aggressively destructive acts do not require a consistent platform, except if the results incite action within our communities to better protect our society.

The United States is the only country that has record shootings and mass bloodshed created by the misuse of assault rifles and handguns. The ease of accessibility to these dangerous weapons, without extensive background checks, without age restrictions, is paralyzing.

The trend sweeping our court system is not one of tighter regulatory laws for guns, but rather one toward ever expansive gun rights for the common civilian without checks and balances. There will be an enormous flurry of litigation from gun advocates that shall target state gun control measures if the impending overturn of laws in New York, by the U.S. Supreme Court, transpires.

This summer, the court is expected to overturn a longstanding law that forbids people from carrying guns in public without support of a “special need” for self defense. This also would exclude the need for background checks to substantiate this special need to carry.

If this requirement is altered, it will have sweeping negative effects in New York. What if someone is given this need to defend their “special needs” and they are armed in public — in Times Square, at a sports arena, on a college campus — and they feel the right to defend themselves?

All signs are unfortunately pointing to a looser acceptance of these very dangerous allowances. This would be a devastating expansion of the Second Amendment and gun rights for people not only in New York but across the country.

What can we do about this? In my opinion, I think it prudent to contact the 50 senators opposing greater gun control. It’s also effective to text ACT to 644-33 to be informed about how one might appeal to their local community, get involved in greater gun control law reforms and reach their senators directly.

We are the keepers of our own castles, however. If there is the fear of going to your local grocery store, your house of worship, your elementary school, what is the solution for defense? Is it arming our teachers, is it going rogue and carrying a gun for self defense? These are the things that might very well be contemplated in a society that is out of control.

The assailant who killed 19 people in Texas was not permitted to lawfully order alcohol at a bar, but he was permitted to purchase an AK-15 rifle with the intention to kill. The time for action is past due.

Dale Novick

Southampton