To the editor: I am one of the lucky ones. My son was not at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in 1999 when a white supremacist went on a shooting spree there. And he was not at Parkland High School in Florida or at Columbine or Sandy Hook. And he also managed to escape the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, even though he was just a block away. (“Teen arrested in Georgia school shooting is not an adult and should not be treated as such,” editorial, Sept. 7)
In fact, throughout his entire educational career, he never participated in an active shooter drill. Growing up in the Midwest, I participated in tornado and fire drills. Here in Southern California, my son participated in fire and earthquake drills.
While watching coverage of the recent Georgia school shooting, I realized that active shooter drills are as common these days as fire drills. This has to stop.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun violence is the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States. How many more empty prayers will we hear? How many more shooters will we call “monsters”? How many more deaths or injuries will it take before Congress takes strong action to control guns?
Terri Jonisch, Northridge
..
To the editor: There are more guns than people in the United States. The billionth mass shooting in Georgia is the latest grim reminder of the consequences.
We read about the Second Amendment to the Constitution and the futile arguments of strict constructionists and other so-called constitutional scholars. That document was written in 1787, as I recall from my first U.S. history course. There were no AR-15 rifles or other assault weapons back then.
Therefore, I believe that people in this country can own guns, but only if those guns are up to the technology that existed when the Constitution was written. So let people go out in public with their muskets and blunderbusses, which may take a minute to load.
Put it in your Second Amendment pipe and smoke it.
Luis Torres, Pasadena
..
To the editor: I believe that charging the parents of the alleged Georgia school shooter will have no deterrent impact.
But that's not the point. The point is stupidity. Occasionally, some people's stupidity is so profound (such as when someone gives his disturbed child a gun) that, whether criminal or not, the act must be punished and we get a small satisfaction out of it.
Jack Spiegelman, Los Angeles
