Another day, more shootings, more deaths in New York. Young people facing violent death because of disagreements. What is the answer?? It's too easy to get firearms illegally in this state, despite the laws. The underbelly of our society simply go to states where guns are easy to obtain, then smuggle them into our state. What is the answer? The NRA would have you believe that we should arm everyone, so that people could retaliate. This is just insanity. We don't need to go back to the fabled wild west days, where people routinely shot at each other. We are supposed to be an evolved society. However, it seems to me that we are sliding backwards. When I was a young man, most young people did not routinely shoot at each other. The concept of killing someone that you disagreed with was, for the most part, foreign and abhorrent to us. We might get into fist fights, but to murder someone was beyond our way of thinking. What has changed? Is it the glorification of gun violence in our entertainment? Is it the constant violence and hatred that seems to permeate our daily lives? I just don't know. I do know that arming everyone in the society is not the answer. I do know that handcuffing those who are sworn to protect us is not the answer. I do know that the constant drumbeat of hate in the media is not the answer.
We should be better than this. We should strive to be better as a society. The constant anger and hatred that is displayed on social media shows the breakdown in our society. I can only sit and watch in horror as our society seems to continue to break down on a daily basis. I hope.... I pray.. that cooler heads will prevail, and that the insanity that seems to to be destroying us, is stopped in it's tracks. I am an old man.. my time is limited, but I am in anguish for my grandchildren.

 The politicians hem and haw and accomplish nothing. Some wave their guns around and talk about the constitutional right to bear arms. I don't disagree. There is a constitutional right to bear arms. There is also a right to live our lives as law abiding citizens without the fear of having a child or another family member cut down by someone who is unstable, or a sociopath who can take lives without blinking an eye. The ability to buy weapons regardless of a persons stability is unconscionable. When will something be done to protect honest citizens? We don't want to hear rhetoric. We do not want to be talked to like children about the constitution. We demand that our right to live peaceful lives be protected. We demand that our children be free to attend school without the fear that their school will be assaulted by someone with a personal arsenal and an axe to grind. 
 We just want guns to be registered. We just want gun owners to be licensed. We just want lethal weapons to be kept out of the hands of those who have the potential to do harm. Is this too much to ask?
 I know responsible gun owners, some of them friends of mine, who agree with most of what I think. I am not asking that people like this be disarmed. Just the reverse... I hold them as shining examples of what a responsible gun owner can be. I don't know what the outcome of all of this will be. I can only hope that sensible people will prevail.
  As always, I wish you all Peace, Love, and Tranquility. 
 John Zaffino October 27, 2015
 Kent Lakes, New York.

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