Children massacred; Nevada GOP candidates tough guy gun-toting TV ads keep coming
For the record, I just watched two campaign ads for Nevada politicians where they are waving guns around and bragging about their shooting abilities. What am I supposed to be learning about them from this? I am not impressed, I am repulsed. While we are in between burying old people in Chicago and children in Texas, a sense of decency would dictate they pull these ads, at least until we bury the kids. Full disclosure, I do not own a gun, I have never owned a gun. In fact I have never even touched a gun. I do not feel unsafe because I don’t have a gun. I feel unsafe because other people do. You are safe around me because no matter how mad I am, how mentally ill, or how just plain stupid, I will not shoot you. If guns made us safer we would be the safest country on the planet. We are in fact the least safe country that is not at war. I would bet that most of the parents of the dead children in Texas are gun owners. Did that protect their children? Of course not. And not the children in Columbine, Newtown, Parkland, or adults in El Paso, Pulse nightclub, Vegas concert, Carolina church, etc. etc. I wonder who will be next? What will we do? Nothing. We are a country of cowards who do not value human life, unless you want an abortion.
Annette Finn, Reno
Vandals will target scooters
I’m already seeing the (Bird) e-scooters (RN&R, May 2) abandoned on sidewalks in Midtown. I expect we’ll soon see them vandalized and wrecked as well. The City Council has learned nothing from our experience with the rental bicycles and keeps making the same mistake. Until there’s a way to make sure the scooters can’t be trashed or stacked up on sidewalks, Reno just isn’t ready for these “dockless” rentals.
Eldon Wright, Reno
Abortion is immoral
It appears that the U.S. Supreme Court will finally correct the 40-year mistake that is Roe V. Wade. This is a victory for the sanctity of human life that is long overdue. There is nothing that can be done about all the innocent souls lost to abortion but we can now move forward on a moral footing. One doesn’t have to be religious to understand that killing fetuses is wrong. Religions may have different doctrines, but basic morality condemning murder is universal. I’m proud to be Pro Life and especially proud that the court will have the courage to strike down an unjust and immoral law.
Sara Montgomery, Fernley
Tucker’s tanned testicles
Fox “News” GOP propagandist Tucker Carlson is now advocating soaking one’s scrotum in infrared light as the solution to being a wimpy, low-testosterone, bow-tie wearing White supremacist whack job. Even a Trumptard like Kid Rock knows how stupid tanning your testicles is: “Dude, stop! Testicle tanning? Come on, I mean, I haven’t heard anything that good in a long time… I’m starting a punk rock band and it’s called Testicle Tanning, that’s the end of it…I don’t know what the hell is going on in this world…But sometimes, some days I just want to stop this planet and let me off.”
These farcical far-right fascist freaks on Fox “News” and their inane, obtuse obsessions with insane idiocies like constantly kvetching about Mr. Potato Head and Green M&M’s no longer being sexy enough for their sick tastes is enough to make a modern day, low-testosterone man perform a “Full Elvis” on his 60-inch TV set with a .44 Magnum, Dirty Harry style. — Jake Pickering, Arcata, Calif.
Increasing rents due to landowner greed
We have lived in the same place for 18 years (Streetalk, April 26). Beginning our second year, our rent went up by $165. Then there were no increases until two weeks ago, when we were told our rent would be going up by $300 per month. We are seniors, (74 and 82), and that $300 that now has to go to rent was used to purchase food and gasoline, as we are retired. Our land[1]lady sat in our living room about four years ago and told us that as long as we were living here, she would not raise our rent nor put this place up for sale. When I reminded her of that, she said, “Well, I didn’t mean forever.” Other than a new hot water heater nine years ago, the owner has spent no money on our condo, because we have taken care of EVERYTHING at our own expense. I do not understand the greed of people who own rental properties.
Merri Kirk, Reno
The 2nd Amendment enshrines gun ownership, nevertheless, gun usage can and should be regulated, to preserve our safety and security.
We need laws to regulate gun use like automobile use is regulated:
* License gun owners for usage only after they pass periodic safety tests.
* Require periodic inspection of licensed people’s arsenals to enforce modification prohibitions (like smog checks on automobiles).
* Require gun users to carry insurance for damage done by their guns.
* Maintain and enforce background check databases to restrict guns from criminals, terrorists and mentally ill people.
* Require a three-day pause before gun delivery.
* Enable “red flag” powers for police to temporarily confiscate a person’s armaments.
* Prohibit gun makers from marketing their lethal products to minors.
* Raise the minimum age for gun ownership to 21, or even 25.
* Prohibit sale, transfer, and ownership of military-grade weapons.
These are sensible regulations; they are not radical and they do not conflict with the 2nd Amendment. Opposing these regulations, Republican officials are actually enabling and condoning the ability of mass-murderers to kill innocent children, women, and men.
Regulating gun usage the way automobile usage is regulated does not require mass inspections or mass confiscations, but, if police are required to intervene in a situation, then the people involved in that situation would have to submit to inspection of their license, insurance documents, and their weapons, just as a driver must submit his license, insurance and registration (which is contingent on periodic vehicle inspection) when pulled over for a traffic infraction.
If gun laws made us safer Chicago and New York would be the safest cities in the country. The proposed gun laws will do nothing to stop the criminal use of guns (criminals don’t obey laws). They will only harm the law-abiding. It is far easier to protect schools with guns than to outlaw their use by honest citizens. The genie is out of the bottle. The fascist lefts’ attacks on the first, second, fourth, and fifth amendments are our best arguments for having guns. Sorry if freedom scares you.