Letter: Curb gun violence via the voting booth

Graphic by Lori Deaton

How many children and teachers have to die and how many families must endure the worst tragedy imaginable before our government will act to stop gun violence? The spate of school shootings and mass murder has to stop. Where are the moral values and ethical compasses of our society and our congressional representatives? Inaction is collusion with murder.

President Trump and the NRA want to arm teachers and basically turn our schools into armed compounds. What does this say about our society? Are we to resort to TSA-type security screenings of students every day of the school year? Must we resort to drastic measures just to ensure the right of people to purchase combat assault weapons?

We all hold that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights. However, in our society, there are limits to civil liberties. When a person holds in their hands the life of another by action in the threat or use of lethal firepower, then the most precious of our liberties is violated in the most heinous manner possible. Therefore, gun violence is an issue of public safety.

In the early [1990s], a bipartisan Congress passed the Brady Law. It outlawed assault-type weapons, limited clip size and established the federal background check for firearm purchases. When the time for renewal occurred during the Bush administration, Congress ignored the pleas of law enforcement and struck down the law in large part due to intense lobbying by the NRA. The Brady Law needs to be re-enacted and expanded.

Congress should expand background checks to include misdemeanor violent offenses, close the gun show loophole that excludes gun purchasers from background checks, ban assault weapons, limit clip size to six rounds, make the sale and installation of bump stocks a federal offense, and uphold state and municipal laws that govern the carrying of concealed weapons. The Constitution guarantees the right to own firearms. But as a society, we must be willing to accept and abide by laws that protect our citizens.

The time for thoughts and prayers is over. Action is needed now. If our congressional representatives, Sens. [Thom] Tillis and [Richard] Burr, and Rep. [Mark] Meadows, do not speak out, sponsor or support tough and legitimate legislation to curb gun violence, then by inaction one must conclude that NRA money is more important to them than enacting legislation to curb gun violence. To enact change, vote them out of office.

— Ted Owen
Hendersonville

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Letters
We want to hear from you! Send your letters and commentary to letters@mountainx.com

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

19 thoughts on “Letter: Curb gun violence via the voting booth

  1. Lulz

    LOL ignorance is bliss. You should make criminals put of people that actually pay taxes lulz.

  2. BMacAVL

    “Where are the moral values and ethical compasses of our society and our congressional representatives?” You pose a great question, let’s first look at our country leaders…greed and the political dog eat dog environment runs the show pushed by our media and when it comes to lawmaking, always! Who’s going to pay us more, NRA lobbyists or citizens taking “action” for reform?

    “Inaction is collusion with murder!” I’m interested to hear your take on big pharma and the war on drugs. Drug overdoses in massive proportions and violence over the trade routes kill thousands more per year than school shootings, not that I believe this is a bigger issue…just genuinely interested in your view.

    “When a person holds in their hands the life of another by action in the threat or use of lethal firepower, then the most precious of our liberties is violated in the most heinous manner possible. Therefore, gun violence is an issue of public safety.” What about those part of the 5,000,000+ being held within the lethal firepower of our judicial system? Is that not heinous enough?

    The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 allowed slave owners to cross state lines in pursuit of escaped and runaway slaves. This was the beginning of policing policies in our country, with a little hint of bounty hunting. Who would have thought that becoming a predator, looking for opportunity to perpetuate elected officials within the system’s greed, would create the system we have in place to this day?

    While I agree that “Congress should expand background checks to include misdemeanor violent offenses, close the gun show loophole that excludes gun purchasers from background checks, ban assault weapons, limit clip size to six rounds, make the sale and installation of bump stocks a federal offense, and uphold state and municipal laws that govern the carrying of concealed weapons.” but we should all know by now that passing such laws will not stop the flow of illegal fire arms entering through our boarders as a result to the losing war on drugs that costs taxpayers billions each year. Not to mention…how are citizens going to protect “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”…so called “inalienable rights” when simply controlling of our actions & bank accounts isn’t enough anymore?

    “The time for thoughts and prayers is over. Action is needed now.” We should start with getting rid of the tyrannical two party system which in reality is an oligarchy controlled and run exclusively by the central bank. This has run by the same families partnered with organized religious organization affiliation that have been in power since the dawn of civilization. Then you throw in the ongoing worldwide struggle for control fueled by greed and we see colonization and nationalism start taking off in full force which are nice ways of saying…we must seize control over those weaker and claiming the entire conquest has been blessed by a higher power.

    “And today is for sale and it’s all you can afford
    Buy your own admission
    The whole things got you bored
    Well the Lord chooses the good ones
    And the bad ones use the Lord” – Michael Stanley

    • Lulz

      You expect politicians to change things? Trouble with big government and laws, they are a stand in for morality. American culture celebrates what exactly? Sex, violence, lying, cheating, and stealing. You make it sound as if the elected cronies are responsible for it. Nope, they are the outcome of a bankrupt culture. You can’t have mass murder via abortion on one end and claim to be peaceful on the other. It don’t work that way. So of course people assume government laws are the solution lulz. Government is a racket. It has no value unless it finds way to extort money and power via “laws”. You don’t want to grow it. You want contain it. As I said up above, turning people into criminals overnight is not smart. And clinging to the notion that people should lose their rights for safety is stupid.

    • Roger Woods

      Time and again we find after these incidents, as in the Boston bombing also the killer(s) were known to be violent and had the potential to do great harm. Yet, as in this instance, they did nothing. The FBI, the local law enforcement agencies did nothing, even after dozens of calls to his home, and many warnings given directly from others who were knowledgeable of the situation. This has been true so many times. People who are charged with investigating these situations and to take action to prevent fail. The FBI has admitted they (dropped the ball).
      We also have learned of the “breaking the school to prison pipeline” Federal initiative was implemented at this school some few years ago, allowing Mr. Cruz to remain in school and also to not be arrested after numerous violent incidents, It seems a great many of those who are charged with preventing this are not capable of doing so. In this case, the “school to prison pipeline” seems to have been converted to a “school to graveyard pipeline” for the latest 17 victims. But why hold these incompetent federal and local law enforcement people responsible? Let’s take away law abiding people’s power and get more power from them so we can continue to be a pox on civilization and freedom.
      It is not about gun control. Never has been. Always about CONTROL.
      Take back YOUR COUNTRY! Demand from your legislators they clean up irresponsible and power grabbing agencies and begin protecting WE THE PEOPLE!!!

      • Lulz

        It’s absurd to expect people to be turned into criminals because of the inaction, political correctness, and insanity of the government. Problem with government is that it doesn’t weed out bad policy or bad people. And it expects others to follow the “laws” it thinks is the solution. And any thinking person should realize that 20 trillion dollar debts, broken families, ranking in the 30’s in education compared to the rest of the world, rampant drug abuse, an immoral and deviant culture, crime, etc are because of those policies. They are all failures of big government because government doesn’t regulate itself. It only passes more crap to try and counteract it. Sure you can claim elections are one way to do it but when your population knows more about sports and celebs and nothing about civics or current events, it doesn’t matter. They’re nothing more than puppets to be manipulated with lies.

  3. Fremont V. Brown III

    Food for thought – If, the left is really so concerned about the CHILDREN why are they always screaming that a women has a right to murder her child? The NUMBER ONE method of killing is ABORTION. Do they not understand life starts at conception?

    Based on available state-level data, approximately 893,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2016 – down from approximately 914,000 abortions in 2015 – http://www.abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/:

    A total of 664,435 abortions were reported to CDC for 2013 – https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/ss/ss6512a1.htm

    Most gun-related deaths – about two-thirds – in America are suicides. Associated Press analysis of FBI data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016, up from 9,600 in 2015. – http://time.com/5011599/gun-deaths-rate-america-cdc-data/

    • luther blissett

      “Look, squirrel!”

      Lawmakers are rushing to make it illegal to put animals in overhead bins because of the poor puppy that died on a United flight. That’s an obvious thing to do. Can’t do that with guns, because gun love is a religious belief.

      • Lulz

        LOL give me a second and let me see if I can find the part in the Constitution where it says the right of dogs to be flown on airplanes shall not be infringed lulz.

    • Lou

      That’s brilliant…turn this war on our children into a war on women. STOP TRYING TO CONTROL OUR BODIES. They belong to US. You will never own us.

      • Able Allen

        The tangential thread arguing abortion is off topic and will be deleted after this point.

  4. john burgin

    I feel your pain, but we are the government. That said, for over a month, I have been tweeting a link to a specific detailed way to stop mass shootings, and all I got was crickets! You can lead a horse to water…. It is the American way, and that is as it should be. I can stand it if you can. #Thereisaway

Leave a Reply to Fremont V. Brown III ×

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.