Support candidates who favor sound, sensible regulation of firearms

Editor,

There are certain life events one celebrates and remembers forever…weddings, new babies, graduations, reunions, receiving awards. Sadly, life is a balance and we also recall the tragedies…the illnesses, deaths, and funerals. This weekend of shootings in El Paso and Dayton within hours of one another brought back haunting memories that will live with me forever…the murders of friends and classmates by gun violence.

As a college student at Loyola University in Chicago, I was shocked to learn one of my classmates had been shot while riding on public transit, trying to protect his girlfriend during a robbery. The perpetrator was never caught.

In 1997, while watching the news one evening, I saw my friends Mike and Miriam on television struggling to speak. Their beautiful, talented, 19-year-old son Brendan had been shot in the face in a robbery and lived only 36 hours. They had to make the painful decision to pull the plug because he was brain dead and someone else could benefit from receiving his organs. Attending the funeral of a murder victim creates a memory that never, ever leaves you. Knowing the person in that casket is so young and that there are no words of comfort one can offer creates a feeling of true helplessness.

Our founding fathers wrote a Constitution 230 years ago to help guide us in regulating our new country. Did they get it right? Apparently not because they have had to amend it numerous times. Those who rabidly defend their right to own firearms point to the 2nd Amendment which states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

When our founders argued about organizing a militia and having single or double fire muskets, were they ever envisioning those who could take so many lives at grade schools, shopping malls, and night clubs within a matter of minutes and bring so much pain to so many families? Doubtful. Ironically, today’s 2nd amendment defenders are seldom equally vigilant about protecting the 1st amendment rights of those who practice non-Christian religions or freedom of speech and the press.

We always believe the latest shootouts are the turning points for action, yet we look the other way until the next few massacres occur. At what point do we finally realize the rights of a few misguided men with semiautomatic rapidfire guns supersede the rights of men, women, and children to live safe, sane lives?

Please…let’s truly make this time the last time. Support candidates who favor sound, sensible regulation of firearms. Write your own letters to the editor, reach out to friends, and family. Go bold…turn in your own weaponry…tell your friends what you’ve done…make this the day you turn a corner and say…”enough!”