If evil caused the Allen outlet mall shooting, then Texas put the gun in evil’s hands | Opinion
We must come together now
I can’t stomach another argument that guns don’t kill people — “evil” does. We are arming evil. Other countries don’t. We don’t fund enough for mental illness care. Other countries do.
We must come together as a compassionate nation and finally do everything we can to change this landscape of American carnage.
- Beth Llewellyn McLaughlin, Fort Worth
Yes, we do have the tools to fix it
Our leaders’ sympathies and prayers are not enough. Those feelings are reserved for situations beyond their control. But they have the tools and measures to prevent mass shooting casualties.
Our legislators could put their prayers into action and move toward minimal gun-safety and control measures that have the support of most Texans: universal background checks, a waiting period to buy a gun and a permit to carry.
I’m a mother of three small children, and there is no safe place for us anymore. In Texas, there have been shootings at a church, elementary school, grocery store and now a shopping center. When is enough, enough? How many more people — children — have to die?
- Erin Perkes, Fort Worth
Mac Engel got Allen shooting right
I don’t usually read the sports page, but I was blown away by Mac Engel’s astute take on the mass shooting at the Allen outlet mall. (May 8, 1B, “Allen mall shooting addressed perfectly by Dallas Stars coach”) Engel needs to run for office, because Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott refuse to do anything to stop the daily massacres except for offering their halfhearted prayers and crocodile tears.
Sadly, until Texans wake up and hear the gunfire, there is no school, church parade or outlet mall where their children or grandchildren are safe from a madman armed with a weapon of war.
- Sharon Austry, Fort Worth
Don’t sugarcoat the horrible truth
The numbing of our country continues.
Our nation is beginning to accept mass shootings, merciless violence and deaths by strangulation as normal.
Now, the killing of the perpetrator of a mass shooting is described as him being “neutralized”? (May 8, 1A, “Authorities search for answers after gunman kills 8 in Allen”) Please do not sugarcoat reality.
- Ann Schrader, Arlington
Why not focus on immigration?
The Star-Telegram Editorial Board comments about Gov. Greg Abbott’s tweet concerning the horrendous mass killing in Cleveland, Texas, were so predictable. (May 4, 9A, “Abbott’s tweet on shooting victims ill-timed, inhumane”) The board demonized Abbott and sadly included a failed attempt at humor concerning Abbott and Tucker Carlson.
It did not mention that the man responsible for these murders is reported to have been deported four times. How many more murderers just like him are in our country illegally while President Joe Biden counts the days until he can give a free pass to even more? Why did the Editorial Board omit that fact?
- Roger Parsons, Haltom City
Lost compassion for the last
After reading the May 4 editorial about Gov. Greg Abbott’s reaction to the Allen outlet mall mass shooting, I want to applaud my newspaper for speaking truth to power. Abbott’s reference to the murdered victims served only one purpose: to dehumanize them as less worthy of our concern and care.
Four people and a child were brutally murdered, and it matters not who they were or where they were from. We have lost our compassion for the least, the lost and the last.
- Beverly Tye, Grand Prairie
