I read with sadness Ms. Field’s letter (West Hawaii Today, March 28, 2018) referring to the young people who marched for sensible gun laws as “marching in lock-step in group-think about control…” I am 76 years old and my wife is nearly 70; we marched with pride last weekend with the young people. I think marching in lock-step is a good phrase to describe Ms. Field as she parrots the old, tired mantra of the National Rifle Association. She states that “if law-abiding citizens were stripped of guns, who would still have them.” Absolutely no one at the rally was advocating “stripping anyone of their guns.” If she had attended the march she would have known this.
I read with sadness Ms. Field’s letter (West Hawaii Today, March 28, 2018) referring to the young people who marched for sensible gun laws as “marching in lock-step in group-think about control…” I am 76 years old and my wife is nearly 70; we marched with pride last weekend with the young people. I think marching in lock-step is a good phrase to describe Ms. Field as she parrots the old, tired mantra of the National Rifle Association. She states that “if law-abiding citizens were stripped of guns, who would still have them.” Absolutely no one at the rally was advocating “stripping anyone of their guns.” If she had attended the march she would have known this.
We have far more mass shootings than any developed country in the world. Australia and Great Britain have radically restricted gun ownership and seen the incidence of gun violence drop dramatically. Japan restricts gun ownership even more stringently and even their criminals don’t often carry guns because of the heavy penalties if they are caught using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Even a cursory Google search would provide Ms. Fields with a wealth of comparative actual factual data about gun violence and common sense restrictions on gun ownership both in other countries and even within the US. Hawaii has a much lower incidence of gun violence than many other states, and we also enjoy stronger (although, in my opinion not strong enough) gun laws.
Our most recent mass killings have been done with assault rifles. Time after time, persons in the military have advocated banning these weapons because they have virtually no responsible civilian use. This has been echoed by many NRA members who are hunters – again, a simple online search will provide ample factual evidence. The vast majority of the population in repeated polling is in favor of restrictions on assault weapons.
Since she does not mention them in her letter, I assume Ms. Fields believes that it is OK to own these weapons. If this is the case she might consider availing herself of some of the mental health counseling she advocates.
Hiding behind the Bill of Rights as justification for assault rifles, bump stocks and the like is just plain silly. The founding fathers never envisioned the type of modern weaponry in the possession of Americans today and you know it.
I do acknowledge and applaud Ms. Fields’ support of stronger background checks, and expanded access to mental health care for all. These are good and helpful policies. However, I would note that the arming of teachers and staff at school sites has not proven particularly effective — there was an armed school security officer at MSD in Parkland, after all, and there have been recent incidents reported of teachers accidentally injuring students while demonstrating their weapons. Not to mention the strong opposition of many teachers and other school personnel to the idea of adding this to their already overburdened schedules.
Dennis Brown is a resident of Kailua-Kona.
