Letters to the Editor: Readers opine about gun control, homelessness in Eugene

Seek out gun control advocacy groups

Unfortunately, making major changes in laws – gun laws in particular – requires significant organization and money. There are many organizations fighting for reasonable gun control, but I’d like to highlight one in particular that has had a significant impact: March for Our Lives. This organization was formed by students after the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

In addition to organizing the largest single day of protest against gun violence in history, it has successfully increased voter registration, met with legislatures and filed amicus curiae briefs with the courts. But one huge success is its impact on the National Rifle Association. It decided to look at the finances of this influential organization and found some questionable activities. It forwarded this information to the New York attorney general. This has led to the NRA declaring bankruptcy and the attorney general filing suit to disband the NRA. The fact that a group of teenagers can achieve these types of accomplishments gives me hope that the younger generations might actually make our world a better place.

There are plenty of gun control advocacy groups – quite a few started by young adults. Please do a search and find one to support.

Charles H. Jones, Eugene

The hottest ticket in town

There was recently a heat wave in India and Pakistan. Record high temperatures for several months. Blah, blah, blah. Do any of us need to be reminded that the climate is changing for the worse? I am sure that no one will soon forget the heat “dome” that we experienced last year.

Fortunately for me, the hottest days of that were over a weekend so I was able to spend each afternoon sitting in the McKenzie at Hendricks Bridge Park. I cannot imagine having to spend those days in a field or a factory or a kitchen. That must have been hell. The part of all of this that I find so frustrating is that we know how to stop these “domes” from happening. And in some cases, those solutions are actually quite simple (e.g., a carbon tax that returns revenues to citizens).

Individual action is great but policy is needed. The abundant spring rains and cool temperatures make me hopeful that this summer will be a bit less threatening than the last. But what if next time is even hotter? The McKenzie can only hold so many butts.

Ben Rubin, Eugene

Weapons of war on children

If doctors, nurses, EMTs, coroners, cops, judges, lawyers and parents are forced by the circumstances to witness — and live the rest of their lives with the memory of — the horrific effects of weapons of war on children's unrecognizable remains, any lawmaker who refuses to vote against a ban on assault rifles should be required as a condition of holding their job to bear witness to the unspeakably horrendous results of their use.

Law makers must be brought to their knees in the service of truth, reality and responsibility.

Morgan Songi, Eugene

Pumping money into the void

We are ignoring the root cause of many of our problems. We keep pumping money into sheltering homeless, cleaning up garbage and burying gun victims. It makes us feel like we are helping.

We have not solved anything or met our goals to reduce problems. It seems to be getting worse, so we waste more money. Until we start funding mental health treatment centers, nothing will change. Years ago, when we had mental health hospitals and facilities, we didn’t have as many problems. The idea of mainstreaming everyone has not worked. We need a new approach.

Ralene Linneman, Springfield

For funders, not voters

I’m long past thinking that appealing to the politicians to “do something” is a waste of time and only leads to more frustration. Think about it: Politicians are doing the bidding of their funders, not the voters. The politicians use the power of funds to help them get elected, to advertise, to use social media, to make sure talk radio hosts and cable TV hosts promote the message that guns don’t kill people, people do. To promote the good guy vs. bad guy narrative, and despite what voters say they want, convince us we are somehow all wrong. It is past time to address the root cause of the problem. We saw what happened when the Sandy Hook families succeeded in suing the gun manufacturer. And while most of us cannot be party to the suit, we can appeal to the companies who keep putting profit ahead of society.

If your product needs a law to protect you from liability, something no other industry has, then ethically you have an obligation to product safety or you forgo that protection.

G. Thomas Gardner, Eugene

Have we lost our way?

I guess the world has really changed since I was young. When I was a child in Oregon, we always learned in Sunday School that Jesus loved children and that a rich man had the same chance of entering heaven as a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

Today, evangelical churches support politicians who are serial adulterers. Many also preach that acquiring wealth in any means possible is God’s way. And candidates like Christian Drazen say no child should die by any medical procedure but only natural causes, but she refuses to support removing military-styled weapons from the hands of citizens even though they are murdering our children all over the country.

Have we lost our way?

Hal Huestis, Eugene

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Letters from readers opine about gun control, homelessness in Eugene