Absolute right to own any gun?
In 1934, the U.S. Congress passed the NFA (National Firearms Act). It required certain weapons to have a license and be taxed. These include automatic guns, sawed-off shotguns, grenades and many other types of weapons commonly used by criminals of the time.
Now we have weapons that are very close to or exceed the lethality of those weapons being sold to young men who use them on our children and citizens. Why is this a hard line for gun freaks? They are brainwashed NRA propaganda of the “Slippery Slope” of gun control. I know many of these people that are otherwise astute, but have no rational thoughts on gun control.
It is past the time for us to remove one tool of the mass killers from them. It may not prevent all future murders, but it may save someone. That is a small price to pay for not having a weapon of war in your closet or safe.
People are also reading…
Jeff Rayner
SaddleBrooke
Try explaining Protecting Kids Act
The latest “do something” hysteria about gun violence is just that, and is likely to be ineffective at reducing gun violence. If Democrats were serious about reducing gun violence through legislation they might consider a couple of things. First, stop vilifying Republicans. Attacking the opposition is never a successful negotiating strategy. Second, Democrat congressional leaders need to explain in plain English to the American people how they expect that each part of the Protecting Kids Act will reduce gun violence, and by how much. Nonsensical words like “common sense” are meaningless. If folks understand the legislation, the intent, and the estimated value, they might get behind it.
“Just do something” hand-wringing is never effective at solving any problems and in this case is more intended to give Democrats political cover and a club to pound on Republicans in the election. Is that Democrat intent, or is it to try to solve a problem?
Rick Cunnington
Oro Valley
Violence committed using firearms
America gropes for ‘gun violence’ solutions. Let’s start at the top because words matter. Guns are dangerous, murders are violent. Are you still reading? Next, let’s take suicide off the table. That accounts for the majority of death, but no one cares in our polarized society. Still reading?
Our conversation on violence committed with guns focuses on diametrically opposed realities:
1. Children who are deranged and isolated from society, yet mostly have access to legal weapons, and plot and document their triumph.
2. Children of the gang drug culture isolated by the absence of family, usually the father, and randomly murder when told to.
3. The old guy who lives in Tucson and has a 12-shot magazine .22 caliber rifle to shoot rattlesnakes if they keep coming back.
I don’t much care which point resonates with you because there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The Democrat Woke House believes otherwise.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
The incredible shrinking screen
My computer/smart phone screen is shrinking. At an Internet web site within the last week, the home screen/landing page had been squeezed into a rectangle at page center, a “page” space roughly 30% of the total screen. There were so many slide-ins, pull-downs, and pop-ups, that by the time the page formed, I was left with a slit. I don’t remember what the page was for, it didn’t matter. I was going to leave a message to let the web page owners know I couldn’t see their page content because of ads, offers, and come-ons. There was no “contact” link I could see. I think there may be no regulation on content vs. ads for a page in terms of space used. If you want your site to function as a billboard and not much more, then the incredible shrinking page will work for you.
Hal Hill
Benson
With gun violence, change starts with me
I have long been a proponent of common sense gun-safety regulations. What now makes the issue of an assault weapons ban a top priority for me was the need for DNA from some Uvalde parents to identify their unrecognizably slaughtered children’s bodies.
Today I read that a retired teacher from Charlotte, Texas, a lifelong NRA member, turned in his AR-15 to police. “I’m a gun advocate. I believe in the Second Amendment. But this AR, after what I saw in Uvalde, I’m done with it,” he said ...”It’s for warfare.” Why does anyone need an AR-15 for self-defense? Do they expect an army to invade their homes? Perhaps some gun owners are themselves preparing to wage war, killing those who disagree with their politics?
Individually, we can vote against any candidate who will not support common sense gun-safety laws or accepts money from the NRA or any gun lobby. It is time to mobilize against lethal gun violence. Now. You. Me. Us.
Barbara Reuter
Southeast side
Unforgivable
More than 3 million more American children are now living in poverty than in December 2021. I think this is a result of President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation being defeated in the Senate by the votes of 50 Republican senators and Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. In West Virginia, 23% of children live in poverty and in Arizona 14% live in poverty.
In addition, over 4 million American children lack health coverage. In West Virginia over 13,000 children lack health coverage and in Arizona over 160,000.
The United States is one of the wealthiest nations and among the developed nations, the only one lacking universal health coverage. Our billionaires pay an average of 8.1% federal income tax each year and some profit-making corporations manage to pay “0” federal income tax.
Despite our great wealth, millions of our children receive inadequate medical care, educational services, housing, and nutrition. Unforgivable!
Stuart Sellinger
Northwest side
Loss of power
Re: the June 6 letter “Vulnerable power grid.”
The electrical outage on the West Side lasted only four hours and was not life-threatening, as your 84-year-old letter writer surmised. Initially on losing power, I checked the TEP website and learned it was expected to last about four hours. That was accurate information.
The temperature in my house went up only three degrees during that time and I lost no food in my refrigerator or freezer. As a 76-year-old female, I found it to be only a minor inconvenience.
Ann Tousley
West side
Inevitable change
Re: the June 6 letter “American fabric is unraveling.”
A recent letter expressed disapproval of the LGBTQ Barbie doll, and the rainbow Oreo cookie. (Any problem with the original Oreo cookie?) The take-away — these items somehow threaten the “American Way,” which “the left” is destroying. Proof of this destruction by the dastardly left? The demise of circuses and rodeos (long accepted entertainment rife with animal cruelty) and beauty pageants — those much-loved displays of women parading in swim suits and sexy gowns vying for a crown heralding an antiquated but entrenched American standard of beauty. These events may have represented America decades ago, but as the song goes, “the times, they are a-changin’”.
White/heterosexual/Anglo-Saxon/Christian is not the only way, though those who think so are fighting hard to keep it that way. Power-seeking Republicans working to limit voting, destroy our election system and install extreme politicians in key positions nationwide (many willing to support an insurrection), are far more responsible for destroying the fabric of America than cookies, dolls, and alternative lifestyles.
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
Banning weapons
Banning weapons or ammo or mag capacity for everyone is like punishing everyone for the wrongs of a few. So, since we have car accidents maybe we should ban all cars? People steal from stores, should we ban all stores? Some politicians are crooks, should we ban all politicians? Hey, that is a great idea.
RC Jazz
East side
On the way to 14th-century Europe
How did this country reach the point that elected officials are attempting to allow teachers to carry guns, but not to speak of anything these representatives do not want students to hear; e.g. anything different, much less controversial?
It feels eerily like a move towards medieval Europe’s witch-hunts, inquisitions and intolerance of thoughts that seemed heretical.
Only the world is not flat, the earth revolves around the sun, disease is spread by rodents, white men are not superior (unless, of course, you believe they are) and we’ve many centuries to establish that war begets war.
Why are these people so frightened?
Lew Hamburger
Foothills
Gun safety
There is no point in arguing with people who believe their right to own any kind of weapon is more important than protecting innocent children and others from senseless gun violence. It just makes them angry and they will never change their minds. Such arguments are a waste of time and effort.
It is more important that the rest of us, the sensible, sensitive majority, work together to elect legislators at the local and national level who will enact reasonable gun-safety legislation, including universal background checks, red flag laws, longer waits before completing a gun purchase, raising the purchase age and banning of AR/AK type weapons and high-capacity magazines.
We have the ammunition needed to shoot down this continued gun violence. It is our votes. Let’s use them. Please vote and ask your like-minded friends to vote. Working together we can make things happen that won’t be accomplished with thoughts and prayers alone. Vote!
Philip Tygiel
Northeast side
Immigration compromise
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all agree that our immigration system is broken and that it needs a major overhaul. We can also agree that in our history immigrants have played an important part in making our nation quite special and the envy of the world. The only thing all the bickering in Congress has achieved is that opposing positions on this issue have been entrenched and nothing has been accomplished. As a start, I suggest that we protect the “Dreamers” by passing permanent legislation to provide them with a clear pathway to citizenship. Immigrants, as well as seasonal workers, are an asset, so pass legislation for an effective worker program. Many countries in Europe have done so, Congress should be able to come up with a good plan, too. Finally, the Constitution needs to be amended so that U.S citizenship is not automatically granted at birth. Birth parents need to be U.S. citizens for granting this privilege to the newborn.
Edmond Schaefer
Marana
NRA at war on America
The NRA and the gun lobby are making war on America. It is long past time for America to fight back.
Michael Judd
East side
Legislation will protect burros
Arizona’s burros are a cherished part of the natural landscape and an important part of the state’s history. These animals were critical to establishing towns across the West, but now they are threatened by a market for donkey skin. As repulsive as it sounds, we fortunately have a chance to help stop it.
Each year, millions of donkeys are brutally slaughtered for the production of ejiao (uh-gee-yow), a gelatin derived from boiling donkey hides that is used primarily in China for alternative medicine and beauty treatments.
Video documentation shows animals being horrifically beaten, abused and killed with sledgehammers.
Most shocking of all, the United States is the third-largest importer of ejiao, ranking just behind China and Hong Kong.
The Ejiao Act (H.R. 5203), introduced by U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), would prohibit the knowing sale or transportation of ejiao made using donkey skin, or products containing ejiao in interstate or foreign commerce.
Congress should support this bill to protect donkeys worldwide.
Holly Gann-Bice
Arivaca
Red flag laws
Re: the June 6 article “AZ group vows to fight any red flag gun laws.”
Sincere thanks to the political group opposed to any red flag gun laws in Arizona and for revealing exactly who they are in this article. Now the people who believe in rational firearms safety measures must finally realize the level of rabid devotion to gun worship they are up against. That is; people willing to back policies I think are guaranteed to promote the continued slaughter of school children and other innocents. Every excuse they offer to oppose sensible safety measures is a red herring or warmed over rubbish blaming mental illness, or else insisting that teachers be armed guards and EMTs, blah blah blah. Any legislator so cowardly that he throws in with patently obvious fraudulent nonsense needs to be removed from office now. Call them out and vote them out.
Gary Susko
Midtown
