Readers react to a border wall, gun laws and Donald Trump
Border wall, water
Can someone explain how the proposed border wall would work in regard to stormwater runoff and the laws of physics? These laws include the stubborn fact that gravity forces water to flow downhill.
If you put a wall in the water’s path, you will create an enormous dam along our border. If you place openings in the wall to allow water to flow in one direction, desperate people will easily flow in the other direction.
If you place bars in the openings, you will have created a dam anyway because storm runoff includes debris.
You can’t bully the laws of physics.
George Lafferty
Fairway
Public protection
All Americans should be protected against excessive gun violence. I feel that deep background checks for everyone, with a 60-day waiting period, and then a second background check for suspicious activity, are essential.
Owning a gun is a privilege for responsible individuals with sane, documented reasons. I disagree that it is everyone’s Second Amendment right. Also, a complete ban on assault-level weapons would reduce mass shootings. The country could institute an assault weapons buyback program if needed. Finally, Americans need to demand campaign contribution transparency from elected officials. It is shameful to have elected people who are beholden to organizations such as the National Rifle Association.
Carole Schroeder
Leawood
Gun laws
I read about the need for gun control almost daily in the newspaper. It is called many things, including sensible, reasonable and common sense. What it is not is effective.
A background check would not have stopped the killings in Newtown, Conn. The killer killed the owner of the guns he used.
It would not have stopped the killings in Charleston, S.C. The gunman passed a background check that gun-control advocates clamor for.
It certainly will not stop gang shootings, either.
Most large cities adopted stringent gun laws in the 1960s, and they didn’t reduce crime.
It is only recently that violent crime and murders have declined to 30-year lows, and that is directly related to eliminating some of these restrictions and allowing citizens to defend themselves, as the Second Amendment envisioned. Evidently criminals do not like armed victims. If in doubt, research statistics provided by the FBI.
Questioning rights provided by the Second Amendment is simply divisive. The solution to some of these shootings is more effective mental health care, not gun control. What these shooters all had in common was mental illness.
Frank Green
Kansas City
Steps to safer U.S.
Here are five steps to reduce gun violence across America:
▪ Research and list how all members of Congress have voted on gun-control legislation during their time in office. Publish the facts.
▪ Research the amount of dollars contributed to the campaign of each member of Congress over his or her political career by the National Rifle Association and gun lobby. Publish the facts.
▪ Investigate possible mental-health issues of those in Congress, including concussions resulting in loss of memory.
▪ All media should write and talk about the information obtained above and ask tougher questions of those in Congress and every politician running for any office.
▪ Americans who don’t want to live in fear of assault rifles and background-check loopholes should get off their backsides, become informed and vote.
Susanne C. Shutz
Mission Hills
Trump’s holdings
No one has ever accused Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of being stupid. Obnoxious, arrogant, blatant — yes, but not stupid. He's a very successful businessman, hence he is smart (12-9, A1, “Trump proposal is widely condemned”).
In my view, Trump is looking at the disconnect between voters and elected officials and is targeting this huge gap with his no Muslim's into the U.S. and his overall immigration and speak English messages. Time will tell if he has read the general population correctly.
But if he has, he may use his understanding of the American public to secure one more property for his real estate empire — the White House. I shudder at the thought of this but I have but one vote.
Bill Butler
Gladstone
This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to a border wall, gun laws and Donald Trump."