{"id":377123,"date":"2010-03-01T19:53:47","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011227174_gunsinthenews.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-01T19:53:47","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:53:47","slug":"guns-in-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/377123","title":{"rendered":"Guns in the news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slain teacher deserved protection from law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

After reading the article \u201cInfatuated man shoots, kills teacher\u201d [NWSaturday Feb. 27] about yet another young woman being killed by a rejected ex-suitor \u2014 or non-suitor \u2014 I feel physically ill. How many more young women must die at the hand of a jilted suitor before we change our laws to reflect the seriousness of these situations?<\/p>\n

She had done everything correctly: She repeatedly told him to leave her alone in front of witnesses, she had had someone else warn him off verbally \u2014 indicating that others knew about his behavior and that she was not the only one who thought his actions were wrong \u2014 she had a one-year-old court order for him to keep away, she let her co-workers know about her sense of vulnerability, he had been thrown out of her workplace before, she had the courage to call the police herself when he showed up at her workplace in the past. What else was she supposed to do?<\/p>\n

Besides the predictable gun lobby and the NRA getting headlines saying she should have gotten a gun to protect herself or gotten some training, what else could have prevented this?<\/p>\n

Recently, we have seen legislative bills arise because police died or were wounded by someone with a bad record who was out on parole. Prosecutors are clambering for declarations that no bail be allowed in these special cases.<\/p>\n

How about extending the same courtesy to women at risk who have followed the letter of the law? Let\u2019s change our laws to save them before they are killed in situations that clearly demonstrate a high risk.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jeff Wedgwood, Issaquah<\/em><\/p>\n

Misused label of killer as \u2018infatuated\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regarding another case of coldblooded killing of a kind and accomplished woman by a spurned male, my dictionary defines infatuated as \u201ccharacterized by foolish or irrational love or desire.\u201d Synonyms listed are \u201cfond, doting and overaffectionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jed Waits \u2014 the coward who laid in wait with a gun and shot special-education teacher Jennifer Paulson \u2014 was not infatuated. He may have been dangerously insane, cruelly power hungry or filled with rage, but \u201clove\u201d or even \u201cirrational desire\u201d does not begin to describe such depraved and wanton disregard for life.<\/p>\n

Infatuation implies innocent puppy love but Waits wasn\u2019t foolish, doting or fond of Paulson \u2014 no matter how many teddy bears he sent her. He was brutal and The Times should be more careful of the words it chooses for its headlines in order to avoid diminishing the magnitude of the outrage and avoid excusing violence against women.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael Schein, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Arming teacher might have prevented murder<\/strong><\/p>\n

How in the world could Jennifer Paulson have been brutally murdered by someone who had an anti-harassment order in force against him? Oh I get it: Criminals don\u2019t have to obey our laws.<\/p>\n

All U.S. citizens \u2014 even if they are teachers at a public school \u2014 should have the fundamental right to defend themselves. As a local news commentator said with respect to this sad event, \u201cCops can\u2019t be everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why shouldn\u2019t we be given the right to act as our own cop anytime, anywhere?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark L. Holmes, Kenmore<\/em><\/p>\n

Giving guns to teachers akin to arming airline passengers<\/strong><\/p>\n

After reading Joy Mauser\u2019s letter about arming teachers [\u201cGuns and teachers: Roach is right,\u201d Northwest Voices, Feb. 27], I just had to submit another point of view.<\/p>\n

Forty-some years ago on the TV program \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d Archie Bunker generated a big laugh when he said that the way to end hijacking was to issue each passenger a gun as they boarded an airplane. The irony, of course, was the realization that the damage caused by the solution would be worse than the small risk of a hijacking. Unfortunately, far too many gun advocates might actually support that position today.<\/p>\n

For example, take Mauser\u2019s suggestion to \u201carm our teachers.\u201d She provides no evidence that such an action would be beneficial. It wouldn\u2019t have prevented Jennifer Paulson\u2019s shooting in Tacoma. It wouldn\u2019t have prevented the recent shooting in Littleton, Colo. \u2014 in this case the suspect was subdued by unarmed men. It wouldn\u2019t have prevented the shootings at either Inskip Elementary School in Tennessee or the University of Alabama shooting \u2014 in both of those cases the shooter was a teacher.<\/p>\n

Arming the teachers would more likely result in the teacher being the first person shot. Then, not only would the adult leader be eliminated, but the shooter could obtain yet another weapon.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Evan Stoll, Kingston<\/em><\/p>\n

No time, money to train teachers in gun etiquette<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sen. Pam Roach says arming teachers would cut down on school shootings. Huh? How much gun training can be jammed into the full schedules of our educators? Will teachers have to pay for ricochet-proof ammo out of their own pocket?<\/p>\n

Seventy percent of the trained law-enforcement officers who die in the line of duty do so without ever touching their weapons. In chaotic moments, even they make life-and-death mistakes. Will teachers with limited training do better? Let teachers do what they are trained to do: teach.<\/p>\n

Refine the curriculum so that all understand that the ax, the plow, the telegraph and the small-pox-infested blanket played a role equal to that of the gun in \u201cconquering\u201d a continent. The gun is not a sacred national icon and it entitles no one to be judge, jury and executioner.<\/p>\n

The NRA tells us the answer to every problem is more guns. But an arms race with criminals and the mentally unstable benefits no one but gun manufacturers. The safety of our children is best served by treating the gun like the dangerous tool it is and by giving our children \u2014 and perhaps Sen. Roach \u2014 other strategies for handling problems.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Griswold, Mill Creek<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slain teacher deserved protection from law Editor, The Times: After reading the article \u201cInfatuated man shoots, kills teacher\u201d [NWSaturday Feb. 27] about yet another young woman being killed by a rejected ex-suitor \u2014 or non-suitor \u2014 I feel physically ill. How many more young women must die at the hand of a jilted suitor before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}