NYS needs to act on gun ban

NYS needs to act on gun ban

As a lifelong Democrat and a former state senate candidate, I am deeply saddened and profoundly ashamed by New York’s cowardly legislative response to the most recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas [“Deal on new gun measures,” News, June 1].

Since both slaughters were carried out by apparently disturbed teenagers using military assault weapons, our state has decided to raise the minimum age for purchasing these guns from 18 to 21. Can we all relax now?

Nearly five years ago, the deadliest mass shooting in American history took place in Las Vegas. The gunman was a 64-year-old multimillionaire, a college graduate who also used legally purchased assault weapons and loads of ammunition. He killed 60 and wounded 411, and also killed himself. Shouldn’t we also stop 64-year-old men from buying assault weapons?

Why didn’t our state simply ban the ownership, purchase and sale of all assault weapons in New York, create a buy-back program and set deadlines for compliance.

Make a change:  Keep charging state tax on gasoline sales until the end of the year, and use that $500 million to fund the weapon purchases program.

Jim McDonald, Deer Park

The Republican solution, merely focusing on mental health issues to resolve escalating gun violence, the leading killer of American children, flies in the face of established data. Compared to 22 other high-income nations, all dealing with mental health issues, the U.S. gun-related homicide rate is 25 times higher.

These nations reduced gun violence by enacting reasonable gun reform legislation. However, it’s time to also take on the gun industry for some of the same reasons we successfully sued the tobacco industry, such as making huge profits with little if any regard for death, suffering, and soaring health costs. Just as cigarettes were designed to ensure addiction, assault weapons, magazines and bullets were designed to kill and decimate more human beings in the shortest time. Uvalde, Texas parents had to provide DNA samples to identify their unrecognizable children. These weapons, capable of piercing normal body armor and killing dozens of police in minutes, apparently engender fear and immobilize some the officers needed to protect our children and communities.

Marge Acosta, Centerport

We’ve had enough of the "this has got to stop” rhetoric. Let’s stop the political posturing with "gun control" narratives and come up with solutions to the core problem. Our culture began to crumble with the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and those with drug problems. Rather than correct that blunder, legislators spend years arguing about gun control. That will have little effect on the mentally ill intent on shooting. Most people I know feel that gun-control changes will correct nothing: Are the legislators listening?

The surest path to mass-shooting control is to locate potential shooters and follow up with institutionalization and proper health care before they fire a gun. Commitment to a well-run institution administered by medical professionals -- not Washington bureaucrats -- is the most effective way to reduce and eliminate mass shootings. Let us begin by devoting millions of the unspent pandemic dollars to safeguard our children in schools equipped with building protection, armed guards and trained teachers who are willing to carry a weapon. Some Republican governors have moved in this direction. We can expect bipartisan support for a program that will locate and treat those likely to attempt a mass shooting.

Harry Wicks, Port Jefferson

Judge Phillip Journey, a National Rifle Association board member, said, "I'm not the one that pulled the trigger." He and everyone else who refuses to do background checks and stop the selling of assault rifles all pulled the trigger. It's time to stop killing our children.

Myra Liguori, Shirley

When is enough enough for our Congress to act on the carnage taking place on the streets of America every day? Thoughts and prayers are a nice gesture but one that will not stop the next school shooting. You know what will -- getting weapons of war off the street, period. Other measures that will help are not permitting a person to buy a firearm until at least age 21 (25 would be better), having red flag laws, tightening background checks and providing increased mental health services for those in need. People from around the world think our country is insane for allowing this to go on. I wholeheartedly agree, and I am ashamed of us. We could do so much better.

Jo-Tina DiGennaro, Bayville