Why do we feel the need to kill each other?

Is it the American thing to do?

By Letters to the Editor

A woman prays Wednesday at a memorial for the victims of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park,

Do we kill one another because no country has invaded our land and reduced our cities to rubble?

Do we kill one another because we have food in abundance?

Do we kill one another because we own guns and they must be used?

Do we kill one another because we are spoiled and privileged?

Do we kill one another because our lives are so blessed, we are bored with it all?

Do we kill one another because God and godliness are just about gone?

Do we kill one another because we have lost our minds and our souls?

Do we kill one another because now, sadly, it’s the American thing to do?

Just asking.

Kathleen Melia, Niles

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We need action

I think we can agree, that we are long past “thoughts and prayers.” We need action.

This was another “lone wolf” shooting, which is the hardest for law enforcement to prevent. The only answer is an assault weapons ban. If this shooter had used a rifle, there would have been a few injuries, but possibly no deaths and certainly no mass casualties.

Assault weapons are not used for hunting or self-defense (except in the military or for the police). There is no reason for them to be readily available to any mass shooter. It was sadly left out of the recent bill but needs to be added immediately.

These events have become “normalized,” as has the thinking that one’s grievances can be solved by violence. If we, as a society, cannot pass an assault weapons ban, then our lives are forever changed. Who is going to go to a parade or community event?

Schools are going to be armed camps. This can’t go on.

Carol Kraines, Deerfield

Compelling evidence

It was both remarkable and highly commendable that a group of suburban cops (to be sure aided by some feds) from an extremely low-crime area were able to identify and capture the Highland Park shooter in short order. That response gives compelling evidence that, if properly trained and supervised, the cops provide a vital civic service and that they should be praised rather vilified, which seems to be the current custom.

William P. Gottschalk, Lake Forest

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