Stop The Madness - 27 East

Letters

Southampton Press / Opinion / Letters / 1504034
Aug 5, 2019

Stop The Madness

Shame on us. Another week of gun massacres in America … 29 dead … scores injured …

Nick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff, says neither Trump nor any politicians are to blame. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says video games are to blame.

Well, any rational person knows that the volume of guns and assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are the primary reasons we have so many, and so frequent, mass murders in America. No other country in the world has anywhere near the number of gun murders that we have.

At the same time, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric clearly had a role in the El Paso massacre.

At long last, we should pass common sense laws to reduce gun deaths in our country: Require gun owners to be licensed. Ban assault weapons. Ban high-capacity magazines.

The Republicans are largely to blame for blocking this type of legislation year after year.

With the National Rifle Association in a state of disarray, maybe some Republicans will muster the courage to vote for gun legislation and save the lives of innocent Americans from gun violence.

It is the responsibility of all citizens—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—to vote against any elected official who blocks common sense gun laws. This madness must stop.

Dick SheehanWesthampton Beach