To The Reader’s Forum:

So, as of today, March 28, 2023, there have been, per at least one report, over 130 “mass shootings” in America this calendar year! Three children and three adults were gunned down yesterday at a private school in Nashville, TN. One MAGA/GOP Congressperson, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, said, “My prayers are with the beautiful children whose lives have been lost, their families & the first responders who are dealing with this tragedy in Nashville!”

At least four questions come quickly to mind – 1) Does “God” hate children since gun violence is the leading cause of their deaths, 2) Why does “God” allow Americans to kill each other since America has, by far, the greatest number of homicides among developed nations, 3) Does “God” take delight in watching “families and first responders” have to deal with tragedies like mass shootings since we now average more than one per day, and 4) Are the bullet-riddled and bloody bodies of children and adults still “beautiful” in Boebert’s, ours (and “God’s”) eyes?

I have other questions, too. It seems “God” has a hand in the random mass murder of innocent children and adults so why do people pray to that same “God”? Do people pray to “God” as a form of thanks that the dead children and adults are not their loved ones? How does praying for victims of gun violence afterwards prevent them from becoming victims in the first place? If “God” is omnipotent, why does “God” allow the random slaughter of children and adults? In my upbringing I had been taught that “God loves the little children.” Really? Allowing them to be slaughtered is a strange way to show love.

Those questions asked, I will repeat a few suggestions to reduce gun violence nationally, which include but are not limited to, 1) show the human carnage caused by gun violence on television and in other media, 2) eliminate semi-automatic rifles and handguns, 3) implement universal background checks, 4) implement a minimum age 21 gun purchasing requirement, 4) implement a 3-week waiting period between purchase and receipt of a gun, 5) implement a police-run gun buyback program, 6) require locks on guns and ammo at homes. NO “right” of ownership prevents regulation. As evident as rampant death by guns is, you can be part of reducing gun violence or you condone it as it is. There is really no middle ground.

Paul L. Demler

Jamestown