The right age to be able to buy an assault weapon
It seems that many Americans don’t seem to understand that the people in Congress are supposed to be our representatives, not our leaders. Congress also does not understand that they are supposed to be representing us and not special-interest groups.
The majority of Americans want stricter gun controls and a ban on assault weapons, but our so-called representatives are not doing their job of representing our wishes.
If Congress will not ban assault weapons outright, I suggest they raise the age limit for buying such guns, not to 21, but to 81. This way they could tell their financiers at the NRA that they are still allowing such guns, merely raising the age limit to buy them. A win-win for all.
— Stephen Wanat, Tiburon
The problem is our ‘new normal’
The cartoon on the Opinion page Feb. 18 shows Uncle Sam looking at his tablet which reads “Another Mass Shooting” while he’s thinking, “I miss the old normal.”
That sentiment has been expressed many times recently, yet all we hear are cries of “More gun control.”
There are plenty of laws on the books; they just need to be followed.
Maybe we should, instead, think about what actually is the “old normal,” what is different now, and not immediately blame guns. Maybe ask, “Do we respect all human life?”
During the past 20 to 30 years, society has changed dramatically, and in the past 10 years even more so. The causes are many and not necessarily to the good, such as: a lack of respect both for authority and human life. The breakdown of the family unit. The move to disregard religion as important or unnecessary. The pervasive violence of today’s entertainment and video games which have desensitized all of us, but especially the young.
The incessant use of the word hate in all forms of communication. Addiction to electronics, causing less personal (face-to-face) interacting between people.
A good majority of people are too young to remember what it was like in the “old normal.” There were no mass shootings. There were no marches or demonstrations of people yelling hate slogans.
Many people had guns, but it wasn’t an issue because they had a respect for the sanctity of human life. People respected the president, whether or not they voted for him. People respected the law and police officers. People respected themselves and others. People worked hard to earn a living; if they had extra they helped those who had less.
There was no “income equality” — if you were dissatisfied with your place in society, you took another job or worked harder to improve yourself. People didn’t expect the government to give them the ability to “live like everyone else.”
There was no problem with immigration, it was done legally. People obeyed the laws.
Yes, it would be wonderful to get back to the “old normal.” Unfortunately, the way things seem to be going these days, I don’t think it will happen.
— Judi Schellenberg, San Rafael
Raising age to buy guns could have saved lives
It has been almost two weeks since the most recent mass school shooting and I am still waiting for a reporter to point out to a member of Congress and/or state legislator, especially in Florida, that if the legal age to purchase a gun had been 21 instead of 18, all of those 17 children would be alive today and there would be no wounded.
Think about it — there is no hiding this simple fact.
Those kids would have been attending their hockey championship game, making plans for the summer, making plans for college, enjoying their families, friends, enjoying life!
There are more laws that need to be enacted regarding gun control in our gun-crazed culture, but one simple law would have prevented this massacre. How many more children and adults will die because our elected officials are under the thumb of the NRA?
— Deanna Spake, Novato
‘Absurd’ plan to test self-driving cars
Allowing self-driving cars with no human back-up on California roads sounds absurd to the point of ridicule.
Yet the state Office of Administrative Law has approved this, to start in April. A major rationale is “testing.”
So our public roads and highways are to be used for commercial companies to test their vehicles, even though this policy has been attacked, as you report, by Consumer Watchdog, for threatening public safety. If companies want to test their driverless cars, let them hire out racetracks and create their own scenarios, confining the hazards that might emerge away from the public.
— Ernest B. Hook, San Rafael