The Issue: A mass shooting at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, in which at least 18 people were killed.
I don’t understand the obsession that the press has with learning the motive of the latest mass murderer in Maine (“Definition of insanity,” Oct. 27).
The motive is immaterial as long as any angry, obsessed mentally ill man can legally buy a rifle with high-capacity magazines designed for the military to shoot and kill as many of the enemy as quickly as possible.
Now that gun violence is the leading cause of death in children, I’m afraid that the daily mass murders will continue until grieving families can find a way to make gun manufacturers pay more in damages for the tragic loss of their loved ones than is currently being made from selling those lethal weapons of war.
Sharon Austry
Forth Worth, Texas
Once again, the government is going to use the latest maniacal rampage in Maine as a reason to punish legal, responsible gun owners. This tragedy could have been avoided if politicians worried more about the people who get guns.
This maniac had threatened to shoot up various places before, was reportedly hearing voices, was hospitalized in a mental unit for two weeks prior and his reserve unit warned local law enforcement about his behavior. Nobody did anything. This is not a gun problem, it’s a people problem.
Nobody wants to do their jobs anymore, and the ones to suffer are the law-abiding gun owners.
A database must be set up to cross-check mentally ill patients with gun ownership. Stolen firearms possession and failure by legal owners to secure their firearms at home must result in mandatory jail time. It’s a simple way to end this problem.
Storm Destro
Bayonne, NJ
We, a society on the precipice of collapse, must revisit involuntary institutionalization.
Enough already. Wake up, America. Guns don’t commit mass shootings, insane people do. People don’t push people onto subway tracks because they’re homeless, they do it because they’re insane.
Rick Cabrera, Elmhurst
I am horrified and growing increasingly impatient.
Let me be clear: I no longer wish to hear NRA-funded Republicans simply offer thoughts and prayers to those who lose family members in a senseless mass shooting.
Nor will I sit idly by and listen to these Republicans once again asserting without evidence that the answer to mass shootings is mental-health care, rather than reasonable gun legislation.
The shooter in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25 had been reported for having mental health issues and subsequently was treated for those mental health problems.
And yet he had access to an AR-15 as well as large quantities of ammunition in high-capacity magazines stuffed in his pockets.
The common denominator in all these kinds of tragic shootings is guns designed for use only in war and not for sport. It is not a violation of the Second Amendment to prevent people from buying AR-15-style rifles.
Let’s do the right thing to prevent future mass shootings by preventing access to assault weapons.
Richard Cherwitz
Austin, Texas
In reaction to the mass shooting in Maine, new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson boldly said this not the time to discuss gun-control laws that would ban assault weapons.
Johnson has shown himself not worthy to be speaker.
Irving A. Gelb
North Bergen, NJ
Yet again, a mass shooting has occurred — this time in Lewiston, Maine.
This lone gunman was apparently mentally disturbed, so the question again arises: Why was he able to possess firearms?
When will Congress finally do something to help quell and end these terrible mass shootings in our country? When will the NRA release its political stranglehold on Congress?
It is time for something to be done. America has become a virtual shooting gallery from coast to coast. Nowhere is safe anymore. Our deepest condolences go out to all those who were affected by this tragic shooting.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
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