In response to a letter by Paul Young, “Who is it that needs an assault weapon?”:
Hi Paul,
My whole life I’ve been indifferent to guns and didn’t think I really needed one. It wasn’t until the summer of 2020 when I participated in the Black Lives Matter protests that I realized I may need a firearm to protect myself, my loved ones, and my civil rights.
I saw the National Guard on the streets of Salt Lake City with their M4s at the ready for anybody who stepped out of line. I saw militarized police in armored personnel carriers in cities all across the US on the news. They tear gassed protestors. They shoved journalists to the ground. They shot people point blank with gas canisters and bean bag guns.
I don’t want to depend on the benevolence of the police for my rights or my protection. Uvalde certainly proved to the nation that, at the end of the day, we protect us.
P.S.: To respond more directly to Mark Lowe, it seems like he is addressing the aesthetics of mass shootings rather than addressing the fact that we live in a society that is producing people that commit these very specific type of atrocities to begin with.
Scott Cragun, South Jordan
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/uM3PUId
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