Must limit weapons
I wrote the following to our two senators and my representative, French Hill. I expect them to ignore it, just as I expect them to substantively ignore the shooting events of this weekend. I feel so impotent in the face of such hatred and violence and the constant response of "thoughts and prayers." Out of this helplessness, this is what I wrote:
"I am so sad today because of the shootings yesterday that I cannot go to church. No one in the United States, except military and law enforcement, needs AK-47s and weapons of its ilk. Please, please for God's sake and the sake of this nation, change your stance on this issue and vote for legislation limiting these weapons."
What else can I do but pray and vote? And write a few letters.
PATTI POWELL
Maumelle
What we can do now
Mass shootings in America ... when is enough enough? Shootings in our schools, thoughts and prayers. Shootings in our churches and malls, same thing. Why are we as a country not doing something? The gun lobby, led by the NRA, has control over enough of our representatives and senators to stymie any chance of passing gun legislation.
There are things that can be done. States on their own initiative who have passed gun regulations have across the board seen a decrease in gun violence. Polls show that over 90 percent of Americans are in favor of better background checks, and over 64 percent are in favor of banning sales of assault weapons.
Crickets from Congress.
You hear people say "guns don't kill people, people do." If you take time to Google the states with highest guns per capita, you will find that the majority of these states lead the U.S. in gun violence. That doesn't sound like a coincidence.
It appears the vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are being carried out by young Caucasian men using assault-type rifles. Does that give anybody an idea of what can be done? I sure hope so.
HOWDY FRISBY
North Little Rock
Don't accept support
To my members of Congress: Yet more deaths that were inspired by the Republican Party's partnership with racism, bigotry and white supremacy, in the only modern Western democracy where this would be possible.
I know that you will not author, sponsor or even suggest any meaningful gun-ownership legislation. My wife and I call on you to at least take out statewide TV, radio and print ads to clearly express to the hate-based members of your supporters that you refuse to accept their contributions, their support or even their votes. We will do our part by working to ensure that Congress and the White House are occupied with people of integrity, intelligence and compassion.
Now, you do your job.
MARK EASTBURN
Eureka Springs
Rethinking priorities
Apparently the money funneled to the Republican Party by the NRA is much more important to them than the ever-growing number of lives lost to mass shootings in the United States. This is beyond shameful. Republicans, please rethink your priorities!
MARY N. WATERS
Little Rock
Constitutional rights
Ed Springer of Sherwood posits that Trump is "flawed," but not as much so as Hillary Clinton, or Americans would have voted for her. Well, they did. Over three million more Americans voted for Clinton than for Trump, even with the backing Trump received from WikiLeaks and Russian provocateurs. Without the antiquated and anti-democratic electoral college system, I believe there would be no President Trump to support or rail against.
Mr. Springer also asserts that if Billy Graham had been on the ballot, "we all would have voted for him." Not all of us, Ed; but I wish he had been on the ballot with Trump and Clinton. He surely would have won the evangelical vote, and President Clinton would be in the White House today. Where was God when we needed her?
Springer states that there is no Democratic presidential candidate he would trust with "our unborn children." From what divine source does he obtain the right to use the plural possessive on behalf of me or any other citizen? The unborn do not belong to anyone. There is no collective uteri. A woman's body is her own. She is not chattel. Nor should she be the subject of unjust laws restricting her right to a safe, legal abortion. No woman should be forced to give birth.
The circumstances of the pregnancy--rape, incest or the life of the mother--so often cited, should be irrelevant. As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, "A woman who exercises her constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy is not a 'mother.'"
As red states continue to restrict and criminalize a woman's right to control her own body, what other constitutional rights are in the conservative crosshairs? When will we no longer be able to read what we want, say what we believe, or vote for whom we choose? At what altar will we be forced to bow?
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
They empower him
Here comes Tariff Man again, right down your street. Throwing his little hissy fit again as devotees prostrate themselves on the ground in reverence and submission.
And following Tariff Man at his back, empowering him, are the NRA, white supremacist shooters and a group of goons, deflectors and obstructionists known as the Republican Party.
JACK ALBERT
Eureka Springs
Editorial on 08/06/2019