Letters: Just another school shooting

Re “Student opens fire at Colo. school,” Dec. 14

When will people wake up? Our children are being bombarded with violence as soon as they can watch television.

Sure, when some of us were kids we went to the Saturday matinees and listened to the weekend radio shows, which exposed us to guns and other types of violence. Aside from the news, that was the extent of our exposure.

Now our children start by watching violent cartoons on TV as infants and toddlers. They graduate to computer games in which they kill people or aliens. They go to the movies to watch shoot-em-up films.

This constant exposure to violence as entertainment has to have an affect on our children.

Irving Leemon

Northridge

News of the latest school shooting ends up in The Times on Page 10. That is how numb we have become to these horrifying acts of violence.

This time, however, there is no uproar about gun control that will eventually die out. That’s because we don’t have politicians brave enough to stand up to the far right and the gun lobby. Instead, it’s all about keeping those votes.

How about just starting the dialogue again? Let’s tighten gun laws and, at least, get rid of assault weapons.

Someone once told me that if you ever tried to take the guns away from Americans, you would end up with a civil war. My response: What would the difference be? We are already killing one another.

Susan Straughn Harris

Glendale

In light of the latest school shooting, maybe it is time for the National Rifle Assn. to rephrase one of its favorite slogans: You can take away my gun when you pry it out of my child’s cold, dead hands.

Lauren Siadek

Hawthorne

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