Trump’s judgment is blinded by NRA money
WASHINGTON IS BROKEN. We can all see it. Democrat or Republican, we know in our hearts that our political system is broken.
One week after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., President Donald Trump, in a session at the White House, listened to a series of emotional stories and pleas to enhance school safety (“Anguished pleas to Trump,’’ Page A2, Feb. 22). After listening to these stories, the president proposed arming teachers and school staff as a solution.
The president knows this is the wrong approach. We know he knows it. It is counterintuitive. However, he cannot take the measures that he truly knows will begin to fix this issue because, like so many other politicians in this country, his judgment is blinded, or determined altogether, by money.
In the 2016 election, the National Rifle Association spent more than $11.4 million to support Trump’s campaign. This number, more than any other, is the determining factor in whether common-sense gun laws in this country become a reality.
In the United States, it is not the red color of the blood spilled of innocent children that determines whether the required change occurs; it is the green color of money.
Gregory F. Ventura
Andover
GOP’s bullheadedness could be its undoing
The National Rifle Association may well be the Achilles’ heel of the Republican Party with its fanatical insistence on supporting the AR-15 rifle. I’m sure that there is a short list of weapons — say, a bazooka or a tank — that normal US citizens are not allowed to operate, purchase, or shoot. Why wouldn’t the NRA back down and add the AR-15 to that list?
By being bullheaded about this issue and almost literally sticking to their guns, the Republican Party may win the battle, but ultimately the GOP may lose the war come next election, since public sentiment right now is at fever pitch concerning this sensitive topic.
I found the town hall meeting in Florida inspiring. And there’s plenty more to come with next month’s March for Our Lives movement. One postulate I’ve learned is that you never get in the middle of parents and the safety of their children.
Erik Lindgren
Middleborough
