To the Editor:
We applaud Dr. Graber's letter to the editor (May 2024) and wish to state publicly our wholehearted agreement with his analysis that it is the marrying of people and guns that accounts for the modern horror of mass shootings. Without the wide availability of guns (especially assault weapons), unbalanced and/or misguided individuals would not be able to wreak the kind of havoc that has become all too common in our country today.
Unfortunately, the state legislature seems deeply committed to a warped understanding of the Second Amendment. Even the governor was only briefly moved to do something after the Covenant shooting, despite his wife having lost a very close friend in that tragedy.
We have really only one good tool at our disposal and that is to pressure our elected officials to rethink their Wild West position—by calling them, e-mailing them, writing letters to them—and ultimately voting them out, if that's what it takes. With the legislature tilted toward the rural, more gun-friendly areas of the state, that's a tall order. But we have to start somewhere—and the more voices we have, the louder the noise we can make. Please speak up—for the sake of our children.
Gil Cohen and MaryBeth Stone
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