Letters: Gun control | Paying the cost | Electoral College | Party for good | Racial divisions

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Pass gun control
for children’s sake

Re: “Student, 14, fatally shoots 4 at school prior to surrender” (Page A4, Sept. 5).

There’s a common phrase that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” However, guns do kill people because the trigger does not pull itself.

We must end gun violence and implement stricter gun measures immediately. From the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 in Newtown, Conn., where many young kids were fatally shot, to Sept. 4, 2024, the school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, too many children are dying at the hands of people who use guns. Parents should not have to worry about their children going to school and coming home alive. Enough is enough.

I am a 21-year-old college student who has grown up having to do active shooter drills throughout my educational career. I want to worry about normal things that someone my age should be thinking about and not about dying in a mass shooting at school.

J. Perez
Sunnyvale

Low-wage workers
are paying the cost

Re: “Freedom too steep a cost for equity” (Page A6, Sept. 5).

The third paragraph of this letter contains this rhetoric: “Why should a person who works longer hours and sacrifices more than the average person be required to give up that which they sacrificed to build and earn?” This falsely assumes that personal wealth is built on long hours and sacrifices, an utterly untrue propaganda.

Guess who works longer hours and sacrifices more than the average person? Those who have to take on two, even three side jobs because their regular job does not pay enough for their basic needs. (No, I’m not talking about Elon Musk’s multiple CEO jobs and his need to be the world’s richest man.) Where is their freedom to enjoy time with family, or even take care of one’s own health?

Yuan Liu
Mountain View

Let’s end distortions
of Electoral College

Thanks to the Electoral College, my vote for Kamala Harris won’t matter. Neither will any votes by Californians for Donald Trump. It is clear that Harris will get our state’s 54 electoral votes. One vote from me won’t change that, and all California votes for Trump will have no impact on the national election.

Whatever the original justification for the Electoral College, it is totally obsolete and unfair today. All power to the “swing states” is not “one person, one vote” like a real democracy. Witness 2016, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and Trump became president.

There is a lot more on the ballot than selecting our next president, so despite the distortion of the Electoral College, please vote.

Kris Sowolla
Los Gatos

GOP is no longer
a party for good

There is no Grand Old Party. Republicans have converted to the “Trump” party. I remember when Republicans were a respected and respectable party. Now all Republican politicians say, “Trump, yes, whatever he wants,” instead of serving the citizens of their districts.

The election has not been held, but they are saying: “The election is rigged,” “noncitizens are voting,” “the election machines are broken,” “ballots are not counted correctly.” The ones making these lies and false claims are the ones creating the problems. Most of us are honest men and women who treasure the right and responsibility of voting and honoring the freedom of our government.

Donald Trump wants to be a dictator on day one and do away with our right to vote. He calls our military suckers and losers, makes fun of disabled people, depreciates military honors and dislikes immigrants. We are all descended from immigrants, except for the indigenous persons.

Elisa Lindley
San Jose

Republicans exacerbate
our racial divisions

The United States, once a welcoming country, has experienced significant setbacks, particularly from those aspiring to be our leaders.

Recently, JD Vance, who is running for vice president from the Republican side, tweeted on X how people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who should not be in this country. It’s not true and it is not something that a leader should do, as he is stereotyping people who have migrated here.

This racism toward people of color who are trying to live the American dream needs to stop, especially from the Republican side, as they have set their minds on getting rid of any migrants. As Barack Obama said in 2004: “There’s not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

Luna Jimenez Joya
San Jose

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Fewer abortions take
place under Democrats

Re: “More abortions are bad for the United States” (Page A6, Sept. 10).

In response to Mr. Burke, statistics prove that there are actually fewer abortions when the Democrats are in charge. When we invest in programs that provide education, health care, paid family leave and child care, abortions decrease.

Thinking people do research.

Margaret Mayfield
San Jose