Texas church shooting intensifies voices on guns

Make America safe

Regarding “26 killed after gunman opens fire inside church” (Nov. 6): It is time to talk about the gun problem in the United States. Twenty-six people are dead because Congress was waiting for the right time to talk. Congress must stand, be counted and take this issue on. Rewrite the Second Amendment if needed, but do something to make the people of the United States safe.

It is time to lead and make Americans safe again, safe for residents to attend church, school, concerts, stores, malls and work. The arguments that mental health, radicalization, immigration or other human conditions should be the focus of preventing these crimes, while true, have been used by Congress as convenient hiding positions and talking points for too long. Now is the time for the conversation to begin to address the gun problem in the United States. Guns are not killing residents of the United Kingdom or Japan or Norway or North Korea or South Korea or Spain, and the list can be expanded. I need safe streets more then I need tax reform. Talk about gun control and make America safe again.

Thoughts and Prayers

Regarding “Lawmakers still sending thoughts and prayers, despite criticism” (Nov. 9): Like many American citizens, I am horrified by the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. As a person of faith, my first response is prayer. I lament to God, begging for peace in a world that so desperately needs it. There has been much contention lately over the “thoughts and prayers” many people offer in the face of tragedy. Some people feel that these words are meaningless, and instead espouse immediate political action as the only answer. Others feel that political action in the face of tragedy is insensitive and untimely, that thoughts and prayers are all that can be offered.

I stand in the middle. My Christian faith moves me to prayer when all else fails. Yet my faith also tells me that faith without action is dead (James 2:17). So yes, I pray, but my faith compels me to move for change. As a Christian and an American citizen, this is my desperate plea for members of Congress to be moved beyond “thoughts and prayers.” We need gun reform now. Members of Congress of faith should use that faith to fuel action toward ending gun violence. I will continue to pray, especially that my representatives will be moved to action.

‘Wake up’

Regarding “Trump: Texas mass shooting is about mental health, not guns” (Nov. 6): President Trump, commenting on the shooting in Texas, called it a “mental health problem at the highest level” and not “a guns situation.” Were we to follow that skewed logic we must conclude that what happened there was simply this: A mentally deranged person walked into the church and started shouting insane things to the people assembled there. Upon witnessing his crazy behavior 26 innocent men, women and children fell down dead on the spot and scores of others lay injured.

One wonders what on God’s precious blood-soaked earth it will take for our president and the members of Congress to finally wake up and smell the gunpowder. Enough of their simply asking, meekly and abjectly, for prayers and locked hands. If Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, and the rest of the NRA’s generously-backed NC Congressional Delegation continue to be spineless in the face of yet another massacre of innocent men, women and children, well then it’s time for them to be “politically” retired.

Fight for rights

Regarding “Trump: Texas mass shooting is about mental health, not guns” (Nov. 6): President Trump is absolutely correct when he said we have a mental health issue in our nation in his remarks about the Texas church shooting. Let there be no mistake about it, those who want control of our nation want to take away the weapons of the faithful and they know there is no way they can take away the weapons of those who wish to do us harm.

Read the history of nations who did have their weapons taken away and what happened to them. Look back on Russia, Germany and some of the smaller nations ruled by dictators and what happened to the people. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others, and you only have the rights you are willing to fight for.

Do ‘something’

Regarding “Lawmakers still sending thoughts and prayers, despite criticism” (Nov. 9): After Sutherland Springs, Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis are praying (again) for the victims and families of (another) mass murder. Given the frequency of mass murders, the senators must be doing an awful lot of praying these days. Perhaps they should get off their knees and off their do-nothing rear ends and take some action to end this lunacy.

I know, I know, they’re both in the pocket of the NRA, but here’s something that maybe even our two feckless senators can do: After every gun-caused atrocity, all the flags should have to be flown at half mast. After a week or two, they go back to the top, then back down when the next mass shooting occurs. Down, up, down, up, over and over. Maybe Burr and Tillis could introduce a bill to just fly the flags at half mast permanently, and save people the effort. Perhaps it would also serve as a reminder to Americans (other than the senators, who clearly don’t think it’s a serious problem) that mass murder is an ongoing tragedy in our country. It’s not much, I admit, but at least they’d be doing something for a change.

This story was originally published November 11, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Texas church shooting intensifies voices on guns."