Are we a nation, or a collection of states? We need NATIONAL laws---like the other democracies have---to protect the safety of ALL citizens. That's the 1st duty of any government, and our congress isn't doing it. If states vary on gun safety laws, guns can travel from 1 state to another for profit. We need equal protection of the laws, for all our safety, no matter what state we live in. Otherwise we are 2nd class citizens---and that'sagainst American professed ideals. Now, those states with stronger gun safety laws should be prominently discussed and publicized on our TV, newspapers and radio. They can function as positive role models, used by citizens to put pressure on politicians. This can counter the big influence of NRA money on our politics. Most citizens and many NRA members want gun safety law reforms. But I've never seen an NRA member who favors this interviewed on national TV. Why not? The contrasts are there---our media needs to use them. Then start publicizing the need for campaign finance reform, favored by majorities, to loosen NRA influence on our lawmaking. What kind of democracy is this? It all works together---lax gun safety laws, big money politics, and media not doing its job to inform the public on positive alternatives.

What killed the 17 school children and staff at Parkland High was a very disturbed young man, Nikolas Cruz. Plenty of laws were in place, but lazy bureaucrats at all levels did not do their jobs. They did not execute what they were trained to do, whether it was responding to the multiple signs that Cruz was a loose cannon without a support network after his mother died, or denying him placement at an alternative school where he had thrived and placing him instead in a large cliquish comprehensive high school, or a campus security monitor who saw the gunman with a suspicious large bag enter the building but did nothing to alert everyone with a Code Red, or several armed Sheriff’s deputies who raced to the school and heard gunshots yet stayed outside the building, or radios that did not work when they tried to contact paramedics to tend to the wounded, or almost total lack of clearly marked “hard corners” in classrooms where students would not be seen by an attacker. Rather than insufficient gun laws, this massacre was the result of a management failure with school and county employees and officials more interested in collecting a paycheck, doing little to earn it, and then covering up or pointing fingers to hide their unwillingness to perform their duties. Then I am reminded that Broward County has been for years Florida’s worst performing county with respect to proper execution of election laws. And the people keep electing Democrats to manage things. Go figure!

This is our "glimmer of hope," as Emma and David and Cameron and all the other Parkland students who organized the March For Our Lives. My three great-grandchildren have a better chance of growing up alive because of the hard work of those unexpected heroes, and I am grateful to them.

Dear NRA, please get back to being an organization devoted to teaching safe use of guns, and stop being an organization increasingly focused solely on the safety of the gun industry. The following series of regulations that passed in Washington State are ones that a sensible person would expect would be supported by anyone interested in guns and understanding the dangers inherent in their presence in our society. "In last month’s election, voters in Washington State approved an initiative that, among other things, expanded background checks, raised the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles, established a waiting period and mandated safe storage of guns." Ending the background check loopholes, so every sale includes a background check, would make it easier for people to accept the right of gun ownership. Showing as a gun organization that you also support the extremely sensible right of society to remove guns from situations where they increase risk (spousal abuse is a HUGE one) would also make people less antagonistic towards gun ownership.

It is indeed good news to hear that some individual States are doing what your Federal Government refuses to. Apparently the N.R.A.’s stranglehold on government stops at the borders of Washington, D.C.

Good, momentum to address the carefully planned and tactically optimized shooting rampages by lone, white males with “legally purchased” rifles and handguns, in this country’s suburbs--in other words, the HALF-MEASURE of dealing with HOW these rampages have been carried out. The real task is addressing WHY these rampages keep occurring in America's suburbs--what do these “safe" and “nurturing” communities do to some of their young men to keep creating the conditions for these rampages? What is it about suburban environments and ways-of-life that generates such explosive degrees of isolation, alienation, and anomie? Of course, one expects educated NYT-readers to understand how irrelevant these conversations are in a city like Detroit, where instead, we deal with armies of criminals and criminalized youth who are armed with semi- and fully-automatic weapons with "high-capacity" magazines, that are purchased and derived illegally. Which is not even to mention the increasingly militarized police forces who show up to "domestic disturbances" in the city with hand-me-down tactical gear, weapons, and armored vehicles from the military. Our environments and situations couldn't be more different--it's irresponsible and self-serving to ignore this fact. Love, An English professor in Detroit, with a CPL, who legally owns a number of "high-capacity" rifles and handguns, who is fine with rigorous background checks on all gun-purchases, and who will never be a member of the NRA

"Groups like the N.R.A. have been focusing on loosening restrictions on where guns can be carried — for instance, by allowing them in schools — and on letting people carry concealed weapons without a permit." Advocating sedition, insurection and anarchy? You mean THAT NRA?? Who needs an honest patriot when you have the NRA?

What about gun registration? Were any laws passed to tighten gun registration?

I am delighted to see this progress in gun control laws. I hope to see more in the future. we should not be afraid to go to school or to the mall. We need fewer guns in the US from now on. We should look at Australia's advantage.

I want to see a clear list of states that have softened their gun laws. I want to stay out of them and keep my tourist money for safer states.

I applaud this progress and am grateful for the advocates who are leading the way. But it needs to be said that there is no legislative traction in the states that are the most awash in guns and have the worst statistics on violence and suicide: Alaska, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Montana, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi etc. There is only so much that the good states can do in the face of the legislative negligence in the bad states. Meanwhile, the gun violence in Chicago is enabled by the lax gun laws in neighboring Indiana, a 40 minute drive.

In view of other shootings legislators ought to listen to police officers who respond to these incidents. One thing that stands out is how hard it can be in a stressful situation, to determine who is the "bad guy with the gun" versus who is the good one. There is a real bias against African Americans in America when it comes considering them criminals. Thus they are more likely to be shot and killed if they have a gun and they are the good guy. This doesn't mean that the white man with a gun is any safer. He might have a few more seconds to live but that's it. We don't need more people carrying guns openly or having them concealed on their persons. We need to have a society that treats people better, stops overreacting to every minor threat, and does show compassion for those in need rather than treating them like garbage. Some of these shootings are the result of years of pent up frustration and anger at a society that has failed the shooter. Some are genuine psychopaths. But making guns more available isn't going to protect the public in a more meaningful way. People need jobs, places to live, access to medical care, and to feel as though they matter. American society doesn't provide that any longer. If it continues to fail to provide it we will see more civil disturbances and more massacres.