Dowling misses mark on mass shootings
After the massacres in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., I read with interest Republican Rep. Matthew Dowling’s predictable excuse for doing nothing to curtail the epidemic of mass shootings. He says there’s no sense in doing anything because “criminals do not abide by laws, and laws will not stop bad people.”
It’s odd to hear a state representative of the party of law and order say that laws are useless. It is obvious to all but the intentionally blind that semiautomatic weapons are too prolifically lethal to allow members of the public to own them. They are in the same category with machine guns and hand grenades.
Would banning semiautomatics stop all future massacres? No, but it could stop some of them, and it would constitute a step in the right direction in any case. If you want to own a deer rifle or a revolver to protect your home, fine. But weapons of mass death that you don’t need anyway? No.
Don’t wait for Dowling or any other Republican politician to take meaningful action to save lives. They’re too afraid of losing the next Republican primary.
Michael Comiskey
Connellsville