Letter to the Editor: We Owe It To Those Who Died and Their Families

There are countless mourners who are grieving and are left to learn to walk with the pain of their lost spouses, children, friends, co-workers and neighbors. But we can do more and they deserve our response. We can stand up and demand that our political representatives do everything they can to bring these violent gun killings to a halt. Or, at best, bring them to a minimum.

We have all watched in horror too many times at the effectiveness of fully automatic, semi-automatic and high-capacity magazine guns to take down large numbers of people. In the ‘80s, at the effort of President Reagan, automatic rifles were outlawed but now legal apparatus at cheap prices, can bring semi-automatics close to the same rapid firing capacity as fully automatic rifles. Everyday in the U.S., there are group killings of two to five people. I’m sure Milwaukee is high on that list. In urban areas, they may be drug related, another critical issue. But to know that 92 people a day are killed by guns, is unacceptable. A complicated problem, yet one that could be cleaned up by outlawing these devastating weapons.

We are a country of 353 million with 270 to 310 million guns. Recreational and hunting guns are not the ones being challenged. It is the military weapons that have no place in our homes or in the hands of our citizens. A majority of U.S. citizens agree we need to better regulate the sale of guns. Why are we then so passive in accepting such a wrong? Why are we not strangling the lobbying power of the NRA, who appear to have no conscience of the suffering the wholesale selling of these horrific weapons are causing. Killings by guns has become a Public Health issue.

If you agree, please cut out this letter and mail it to President Trump, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Mike Gallagher and Representative Tammy Baldwin at the addresses in the front of this newspaper. Include your handwritten note saying you agree with this letter. They know many others have read the letter and those readers might also agree with its content. It is an easy way to make your voice heard.

Meg Ziegelmann

Sister Bay, Wis.