Residents discuss the Florida shooting, gun control and the state of Philadelphia in this week’s letters to the editor.
FBI did lousy job in Florida
See something, say something. How often have we heard that advice? I came home, turned on CNN and they reported the FBI received on their tip line on Jan. 5 a warning about the Florida murderer.
The FBI reported they didn’t follow up. Had they put down their doughnuts, as said by Geraldo Rivera, those 17 lives might not have been slaughtered.
The governor of Florida has called for the resignation of the FBI director. Fat chance of that happening. The FBI will do what it does best, cover its posterior. Nothing new. Ruby Ridge and Waco come to mind.
If you choose to print this letter, I may be getting a visit from the FBI. Instead of me, they should have visited Nikolas Cruz.
Ron Gabor
East Torresdale
Guns not an American right
I am tired of hearing all the solutions for gun violence in this country. The solutions are obvious. Ban all weapons with more than a 12-bullet cartridge capacity. Ban all assault weapons!
I don’t care that the NRA puppets say guns are an American right. Not being shot at is an American right. All criminal gun possession should carry a minimum 10-year prison sentence.
As for arming school teachers, that is the stupidest idea since electing Donald Trump. Do we want our kids subjected to two lines of fire instead of one? Let’s face it, guns are designed for one purpose, to kill as many humans as they can. Until we realize that, these tragedies will continue.
Joe Orenstein
Southampton
Execute Nikolas Cruz
The Florida shooter confessed to the killing. So now what? He’ll go through the trial, get convicted, and get life with no chance of parole.
Last time I checked, Florida is one of 31 states that still have the death penalty. I say it’s time to set an example of him, because up to now, these shootings have been repeated far too long without any consequences. It’s time to put fear back into people’s mindset. It’s time to stop pussyfooting around and have this Florida shooter be the first to set an example that our society will no longer tolerate criminal behavior. It’s time that America owns up to the death penalty.
Al Ulus
Somerton
Injection sites not the answer
While there is no denying there’s an opioid problem, the answer of safe, supervised injection sites seems to make about as much sense as supervised drunken driving facilities where people can bring their booze and their cars, imbibe and then drive around in a supervised, quartered off area.
City officials say the objective of these injection sites is to try to get people into rehab. If the city was serious about helping people, how about since they’re doing something illegal, force them to go to a rehab facility? Most of these people did not intend to become addicts. But they’re reached a point where they are not capable of helping themselves. Watching and allowing them to get high then reviving them when they overdose and nearly die is not the answer.
If Mayor Kenney wants to make history with the first supervised injection sites, then let him start one in his own neighborhood and we’ll see how he likes it. And as far as these sites not costing the taxpayers anything, don’t believe it for a second. The citizens will pay the price for this in many ways.
Nice going again, geniuses. Just when it appears you’ve reached the boundaries of idiocy, you manage to break through and go even further.
Peter DiGiuseppe
Rhawnhurst
Philadelphia is in ruins
I have lived in this city all of my life and the only words than can express my disappointment at the ruin this town is headed for is dismay. It is like we — the citizens who do have a brain and common sense — are being ignored and the inmates are now running the asylum. From a laughable soda tax that causes everyone to shop outside of Philadelphia to a radical who was elected district attorney to a mayor who is probably the worst since Wilson Goode, this city and the Democratic Party that controls it has us at the edge of an abyss.
How long will it be to the next school crisis is upon us now that the SRC has voted itself out of existence? So they simply vote with their feet and leave; and if things don’t change soon, I will be joining them.
Michael Wauhop
Morrell Park
