To the editor:

In February of this year we received word of yet another school shooting. Our collective heart remains heavy with the news. Since this sad event happened we have seen everything from corporate cowards fleeing from the NRA to knee jerk legislation being promoted by politicians who seem to be more concerned with getting re-elected than with preserving our Constitution to students protesting this heinous act of violence by walking out of class.

To add insult to injury the gun haters are abusing the memory of these young victims by using them to promote their anti gun agenda. Instead of identifying and correcting why these shooting.s happen they focus on what happened and the instrument used. Blaming guns for violence makes about as much sense as blaming obesity on forks.

According to US Government statistics auto crashes are the leading cause of teenage death in America. I do not understand why this nation sees fit to restrict access to alcohol, tobacco and firearms for young adults while at the same time children, in some cases as young as 14 years old, are given control of one of the most lethal devices ever created. I wonder how many of America’s youth die from auto crashes each year versus the number of those who die due to the misuse of firearms. And let’s not forget the evil hearted people who use motor vehicles to attack crowds, killing unsuspecting victims. In no way do I mean to diminish the severity of this or any attack on our people. In fact, this is a very personal issue to me. Several years ago a former work associate was killed in a workplace shooting and my niece’s husband was one of the people injured in the Las Vegas concert shooting; he sustained a head wound while protecting his wife.

Our Constitution and its amendments were drafted by wise and caring people who sought to protect this nation by protecting its people. Life is far too precious to be used as a political weapon. If we expect to survive as. a nation we need to follow the example of the students by standing together and the example of our founding leaders by protecting our Constitution.

Dave Fleck

New Ulm