Blame won’t fix it
This is in response to Noelie Rodriguez’s letter (Your Views, Tribune-Herald, March 20).
First off, since the Columbine shooting April 20, 1999, we have lost 400 keiki to school shootings. Not 7,000 in the past five years.
Second, when you buy a gun, you have to have a background check. In Hawaii, you also have to register the gun.
Third, assault rifles have been illegal since 1934. What you are calling assault rifles are semi-automatic. Semi-automatic guns are legal.
Automatic weapons have been around since 1892. Semi-automatics have been around since 1885.
What we need to ask ourselves is: What has changed in our society that has brought this about over the past 19 years?
President Barack Obama had a study done that showed 200,000 people use a gun to protect themselves and their families each year.
Blaming corporations, the NRA and people who have a different view than you does nothing to solve the problem. The more you point your finger, the more people think their Second Amendment rights are threatened.
Then more people go out and buy guns and join the NRA.
David Prager
Keaau
‘Identity politics’
The March 17 issue of the Tribune-Herald provided an informative and heart-warming article by Michael Brestovansky about a young man’s quest to become the youngest person to visit all National Park Service sites. Why was it then necessary to focus on the subject’s sexual proclivities (photo, narrative)?
Identity politics is destroying our country. Print media and “the news,” in particular, are in trouble. Why the rush to extirpation?
There is simply no need to include this stuff in an otherwise interesting story.
Richard Hoeflinger
Keaau