Thoughts on guns

Guns in the United States! I am more convinced than ever that our country is made up of more selfish fools every day. How else do you explain this need to keep guns sacred at the expense of innocent people every time a mass shooting happens? What is the problem with our lawmakers? Too much money from the NRA in their own pockets! Almost all of this money goes to Republicans at the state level as well as the federal.

We need bold action in order to have any chance of changing this cancer in our country.

1) Make all gun sales, except hunting rifles reluctantly, illegal. Give all current gun owners a limited amount of time to turn their guns in for a government rebate. If they don’t, make it a felony to possess a gun! Revise the Second amendment to reflect the technology of today with it’s more lethal capability!

2) Vote out of office any lawmaker who has ever taken so much as a dime from the NRA. This will be difficult, especially in the South where the idiot gene seems to thrive. No one needs to possess a gun for any reason. Its sole purpose is to kill. How many people have ever used a gun for personal protection? The answer to that pales in comparison to the number of people killed by suicide or domestic violence.

3) I am 74 yrs. old. I have never needed a gun for any reason. I grew up in a time without mass shootings. We had just as many bullied and shunned people as there are today. So what’s the difference? Many things, especially the runaway use of social media. But the single biggest change is the never-ending supply of assault rifles, pistols, and large capacity magazines!

We as voters can change this. We need to tell Republicans at the ballot box that we don’t want any more of this, and we know they are the problem. It’s only a matter of time before a mass shooting comes to us. Remember, as Republican lawmakers like to tell us every time this happens, it’s not the man behind the gun, it’s the gun!

Thomas Franklin

White River Junction

Straw targets

Given the bloody course of human history, current world events, and what these portend for the future, it’s hard to conceive of a more fatuous assertion than that nobody needs an AR-15. If we look merely at the last 100 years — roughly the period in which self-loading rifles have been a practical reality — literally scores of millions (of noncombatants, mind you) needed a powerful, reliable and efficient firearm badly enough that its lack proved fatal. And this largely at the hands of their own governments or people.

The only possible way to know for certain that someone will never need a weapon is if said person will tolerate whatever may befall him or her (or others) rather than resort to it. That being the case, “Nobody needs an AR-15.” says infinitely more about the claimant than about the rifle.

Anthony Stimson

Lebanon

A free press should mean a free Assange

Freedom of the press is a fundamental right of a free society. Publishing information that shines a light on the events and activities of our time is essential to maintaining a free society and an honest government.

Reporters must be able to follow events and report on them without fear of incarceration. The truth isn't always what we hoped it would be, but the public must have the right to know; and the press must have the right to publish their findings, free of recrimination.

Attempts to silence the truth and the press have a long history. We must stand up against these forces to move forward in a just world. The press has an awesome responsibility and the potential to open a conversation that is necessary in order to maintain a free society.

World Press Freedom Day was May 3, and yet Julian Assange still sits in jail for publishing truthful information in the public interest. Every day that he and others are punished for having the courage to share important information erodes our democracy and our well-being as a society.

We all need to speak up in defense of the First Amendment. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to do just that. I pray free speech and freedom of the press will always be an essential right in our country.

Allison Zito

Claremont

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