Misplaced concerns

Both Mr. Padwa and Mr. Klein [July 2022] point to the fact that mass shootings don’t happen at hard targets such as gun shows or police stations and advance the notion that the solution to these violent incidents is for more common citizens to be armed or to otherwise harden soft targets.

Rather than deterring mass shootings, such a notion at best shifts the venue. If I were so inclined, I could think of several ways of safely overcoming that approach.

Not so long ago, we enjoyed freedom from fear in this country. Mr. Klein’s concern about the erosion of liberties is misplaced. I am far more concerned about the accretion of power by nongovernmental entities than I am about accretion of power by the government.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but, it doesn’t grant one the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Reasonable gun control is NOT at odds with the second amendment any more than limits on free speech are at odds with the first amendment.

Mr. Klein goes on to bemoan the banishment of prayer from public schools, which is an oft-repeated, right-wing talking point.

Perhaps Mr. Klein isn’t as old as I am, but I remember having to sit in class and listen to my first-grade teacher start off our day with readings from Christian scripture and being offered the option of singing Christmas carols along with my classmates or to sit alone and do math problems.

THOSE are the practices that have been banned. I prayed often and fervently all during my years at public school…as a Jew! My prayers were private and personal. The so-called ban on prayer in public schools prevented school authorities and others from force-feeding me their religious beliefs or to give me unpleasant alternatives. It never banned me or anyone else from praying.

Jerry Goldin

Sharon, Mass.