Letters to the Editor: Will the Boulder mass shooting be another one that changes nothing?

To the editor: On Monday there was a horrific mass shooting in Boulder, Colo. Last week there was one in Atlanta, and before then there were Parkland and Sandy Hook and Aurora and Columbine.

And before all of those was a nearly forgotten incident in the San Fernando Valley. In 1993, a student at Reseda High School shot and killed his 17-year-old classmate Michael Ensley. My son was a Reseda High senior at that time. He saw the shooter run away from the school and was so upset that he spent the night vomiting.

As the head of the district-wide Parent Advisory Council and a member of the Los Angeles Violence Prevention Coalition, I was part of the community leadership that responded. Many of us were hopeful that it would be a tipping point. It wasn’t.

I am deeply saddened and frustrated that since then, the needle has not moved nationally on fighting gun violence. There is no room in our society for personal ownership of military assault rifles or large ammunition magazines.

We must do something before another generation endures this madness. Right now, I am writing in support of revising the Senate filibuster so that movement can occur on several fronts, including gun regulation.

Marianne Hudz, West Hills

..

To the editor: If you allow me access to an AR-15 assault rifle, you’re giving me an implicit right to mow down as many people as fast as I can pull the trigger. Why else would you make available such a lethal killing machine?

If you sell me a Lamborghini sports car, you’re telling me to drive really fast. That’s what it’s built for. America was built on violence, and there is no reason to be surprised when these incidents happen.

We talk about background checks for gun purchases. This whole country needs a background check, and it would surely fail one because its history and propensity for violence should ban it from owning even a water gun.

This country has had blood on its hands since the moment the Pilgrims hit Plymouth Rock. Why not try to scrub the blood off? Removing the blood stains requires removing the instruments that caused the blood to be shed.

Rod Lawrence, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: My husband and I rejoice that our children and grandchildren in Boulder are safe, but there are other families that are not as lucky. When are we going to develop some common-sense gun safety regulations?

I’m so tired of hearing my conservative friends go on about their right to bear arms. When the 2nd Amendment was ratified, the “arms” people carried were slow to load, difficult to aim and not known for reliably hitting the mark.

So I ask them, if you really want to adhere to your literal interpretation of the Constitution and embrace your right to bear arms, how about a musket? One cannot kill 10 people in a few seconds with one of those.

Marcia McCormack, Lake Forest

..

To the editor: Anyone else see the pattern?

A white man with a gun kills many people and is taken alive. A Black man with no gun is shot or otherwise killed because the cops felt their lives were threatened.

Black means being killed or maimed. White means you are having a bad day.

I am sick of it.

Elizabeth Johnson, Los Angeles