Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Ending the gun culture

EDITOR: I appreciate advocacy for sensible gun safety laws, but it’s not enough. The heart of the problem is Americans’ fetishizing of guns. There is a gun culture in our country that goes beyond personal protection or any legitimate sporting use. The concept of a “well-regulated militia” is no longer recognizable. We can’t blame all of this on the gun industry’s twisted perspective, or even on their cowardly GOP patsies; it’s embedded deep in our culture and our identity as Americans. And it’s sick. American gun culture is what we must change if we’re going to meaningfully reduce the carnage that comes at us every day.

This won’t get better until owning an assault rifle or semi-automatic handgun is seen as the perverted, anti-

social behavior that it is. It won’t change until we stop “grooming” our young boys with exposure to guns. It won’t change until men in leadership positions start saying, “I don’t need guns to be a man.” Rep. Mike Thompson proudly identifies as a gun owner and hunter. It would be so powerful if he instead said, “Guns have come to symbolize a hideous and evil stain on American life. Here, take mine. Destroy them. I can’t shoot them anymore.”

PETE PARKINSON

Santa Rosa

Respecting beliefs

EDITOR: It seems the Supreme Court if going to revoke the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision asserting a constitutional right for women to choose to have an abortion up to the time of fetal viability. In the absence of such a federally recognized constitutional right, individual states are unconstrained to regulate abortions or make them illegal.

The social choice, and the legal argument, is framed in terms of a woman’s right to choose versus legal protections for an unborn fetus. The Gordian knot seems to be the legal status of a fetus. Does a fetus have constitutional rights? Rights that preempt a woman’s right to control her own body? Roe v. Wade answers that question no until viability and then yes.

I think every abortion is a tragedy on many levels, in the same way every divorce is a tragedy. If religious beliefs inform someone’s opinion that a fetus is infused with a soul by God at conception, or at the first heartbeat well in advance of viability, their personal decision to bring their unborn fetus to term is be respected. But should that personal religious conviction become the principle upon which an established constitutional right is denied people who believe otherwise? I think not.

JIM PEDGRIFT

Santa Rosa

Making reparations

EDITOR: I read that the task force convened by Gov. Gavin Newsom recommended repatriations for Black Californians for oppression against them from slavery to recent redlining (“Report demands reparations,” Thursday). The final recommendations will be made in 2023. As a Japanese American interned during World War II, I received repatriation and a letter of apology from President Ronald Reagan. The money was used for my sons’ college educations. I agree with the task force that Black Americans have been badly mistreated in California, but I wonder why they didn’t address mistreatment of Native Americans and Hispanic Californians, who have also been sorely mistreated.

JON YATABE

Bodega Bay

Saving water

EDITOR: A couple of years ago, noting the length of showers my teenage daughter took, I determined to stop throwing the water into the sewer while using fresh water in my yard. I live in a single-story home, so I was able to intercept the drain lines from my showers under my home and put a diversion valve on them, directing the shower water into a 10-gallon sump bucket, which intermittently pumps the water to a 200-gallon storage tank in my backyard. I installed a pressure tank and pump, all the necessary PVC pipe and a spigot, and now I water all my trees and plants with recycled water that has a few skin cells and a minute amount of shampoo and soap in it. I treat the water with small amounts of chlorine. It saves me around 800 gallons a month. I highly recommend it.

NATHANIEL ROBERTS

Petaluma

Australia’s response

EDITOR: On April 28, 1996, a gunman with an AR-15 opened fire on crowds at a historic site in Port Arthur, Australia, killing 35 people. It was the worst mass shooting in Australia’s history. Twelve days later, the Australian prime minister announced a sweeping package of gun reforms. Up to that time, the gun lobby had been a major force in Australian politics — in a country where firearms were considered an essential part of the national identity

Australia’s 1996 National Firearms Agreement banned several types of firearms and resulted in the government buying hundreds of thousands of weapons from their owners. Since then, mass shootings have effectively disappeared in Australia. What was once an almost annual event has only happened once since the reforms.

In the first 21 weeks of 2022, America had already seen 213 mass shootings. It is time for all of us to stop wringing our hands, and saying, “Once again, nothing will change.” We can no longer accept things we cannot change. We must change the things we cannot accept.

It took just one massacre in Australia … how many will it take in America?

CARL SHERRILL

Sonoma

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.