Letter to the editor:
Nashville, Uvalde, Sandy Hook! Can Wisconsin be a leader at long last, in moving forward with reasonable gun control legislation?
How many more children, teachers, and law enforcement officers have to be massacred before something truly impactful is legislatively enacted into law? No more sentiments of “thoughts and prayers”—this refrain has lost its meaning. As a former superintendent of schools and a high school principal, I never thought the day would come where I could not assure our families that our schools were safe. Seeing a slaughtered child’s face and bullet-ridden body has not made the evening news like the George Floyd footage that gripped America and the world. Imagine if Americans really had to see for themselves what first responders at Sandy Hook or any other school or location of a mass killings witnessed in the aftermath of these horrific shootings. How many children, grandchildren, spouses, and loved ones have to die?
My purpose for expressing my opinion and hopefully a call to action, is not that I want to infringe on anyone’s second amendment rights. I understand that hunting is an important part of our culture for many Americans. Furthermore, while not a gun owner myself, I certainly respect the rights of people to own guns per their concerns for protecting themselves and loved ones, but do we really need to own military assault weaponry, semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use? And do we really need to make it so easy for a person to purchase an assault weapon without thorough background checks and waiting periods?
Our true pandemic now is death by automatic assault weapons that can kill dozens of people within seconds. It is a tired argument that it’s the person not the gun. The United States is not the only country in the world coping with people who are dangerous, with mental health challenges, yet no other country suffers from daily mass shootings with assault weapons. The common denominator in all of these mass shootings is access to automatic weaponry. Since January 1, 2023 up until April 17 of this year, one-hundred and sixty mass shootings have been reported in the United States. What is really sad is that these incidents now are so common that they almost do not make headline news.
Wisconsin Legislators: find some common ground in passing legislation that while protecting second amendment rights, also directly addresses the banning of military weaponry that is easily purchased without thorough background checks. It’s time!
James Fitzpatrick
Fort Atkinson
File photo/Kim McDarison.
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The populist message of fear and so much right-wing disinformation has has pushed this country to mistrust in our institutions and so much division. We’re shooting first, asking questions later; when it’s too late. There are more guns in the US than people. So where does it come from? It comes from lies and fear fueled by key media outlets like Fox. The Dominion law suit proves among other things that there was no stolen election and that nothing reputable about guns is being discussed there. So what we need is, yes, sensible gun control but also legislation that requires truthful reporting by the media.