Common sense changes needed

Two years ago, in a Tucson, Ariz., shopping center, a mentally ill shooter fired 31 bullets in less than 45 seconds. Nineteen people went down, and six people died. The dead included a dear grandfather, who performed the wedding ceremony for our son and daughter-in-law. Dory Stoddard died protecting his widow, Mavy, who suffered three bullet wounds to her leg.

Those murders, and too many others since then, demand action. Dory’s family has actively campaigned for better mental health care, and limiting a mentally ill person’s access to guns. Surely that makes sense. They endorse the ideas found at the website www.demandaplan.org. Special interests, who say they represent gun owners and create fear about our Second Amendment rights, have undue influence over our legislators.

I urge you to speak out, to balance their message and their money. Another victim that day was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She and her husband have created a PAC, americansforresponsiblesolutions.org.

Please visit these websites then contact your Idaho state legislator and U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador to say, “enough.” Let’s get behind common sense changes. We need to make changes that will keep our shopping centers, theaters, and schools all safer places.

JUDY and KEN MEYERS

Sagle