Will the St. Louis school shooting tragedy end irrational US gun policies? Fat chance

Carnage continues

Evidently, no gun tragedy is brutal enough or horrible enough to shame the gun industry, its lobbyists and its citizen supporters into putting an end to the slaughter, the heartache and the fear Americans experience every day.

As I write this, the news from St. Louis is stunning. A young man with a gun entered the high school he once attended and killed two people and wounded several others. He was equipped with enough ammunition to snuff out the lives of many more.

These gun killings are a national disgrace, yet a majority our state and national lawmakers refuse to seriously discuss these tragedies, let alone introduce and pass legislation to put an end to them.

A recent PBS documentary focused not on gun murders, but on the intense pain they cause, not just to the immediate victims but also to the communities at large. Kids in inner-city neighborhoods know friends and neighbors who have been killed. Some are afraid to be seen outside their homes.

Gun violence killed some 45,000 Americans in in 2021. The first seven months of 2022 saw 350 mass shootings.

Citizens of other progressive democracies experience nothing like this. They often wonder how much longer we Americans can put up with it — and so do I.

- Keith Evans, St. Joseph

What matters most

Missouri U.S. Senate candidate and Attorney General Eric Schmitt continues his attacks on his opponent, Trudy Busch Valentine, calling her an “heiress” in ads and speeches. No one chooses their parents. Rather, people should be judged on their actions rather than their bank accounts.

Valentine, a widow and mother of six children, graduated college with a degree in nursing and worked at the Salvation Army Residence for Children, caring for vulnerable and homeless children. Schmitt worked as a lawyer before becoming a full-time politician.

Schmitt has opposed the rights of women to choose their own health care and has fought against protections from discrimination for the LGBTQ community He spent millions of Missouri taxpayers’ dollars supporting Donald Trump’s election lies with failed lawsuits against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He sued to invalidate the Affordable Care Act and to prevent Missouri cities, municipalities and schools from following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

If personal money is an issue for Schmitt, why does he covet the support of billionaire Trump? Valentine may have been born into wealth, but we know where and how she got it: honestly.

- Patrick Riha, Kansas City

Middle-class pain

Washington Democrats are pushing an agenda of a socialist utopia where the rich keep their money and power and the rest of us have to live under the rules that benevolent Democrats think serve our interest.

Trudy Busch Valentine is the epitome of today’s Democrats. She supported the Pelosi-Schumer Inflation Reduction Act. This measure does not address inflation. It could increase taxes for some middle-class families and grows the IRS.

The winners in this legislation are the radical environmentalists who get taxpayer handouts to continue their push for a Green New Deal.

Valentine would be a rubber stamp for more budgetary items that hurt the middle class and reward Democratic Party donors.

- Teresa McBride, Oak Grove