Letter: People must speak up to save lives

I am angry. I am sad. I am frustrated. Nineteen kids shot to death by someone who was 18 and was able to buy an assault weapon in Texas but could not buy a beer till he was 21. Something is wrong and we need to fix it.

This does not happen on a regular basis in other countries around the world. Only in America. That is not something to be proud of. Why can't we put the brakes on gun violence.

I remember how outraged I was when we saw the Senate fail to act after 20 6- and 7-year-old kids were killed in the Sandy Hook School shooting about 10 years ago. Then there were countless others like Parkland Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 were murdered. A week ago we saw the shooting in Buffalo. When will we act.

We all need to get angry. We need to speak out loudly and endlessly till we see some action. As I think we all know by now, Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Of course there is no silver bullet which will eliminate all gun violence, but we have to find ways to save lives.

Why have we not seen action. We have Senators and Congressmen who are beholden to the NRA and the gun lobby and their campaign funds, We need to vote for candidates who are prepared to take action. We cannot sit back and allow the status quo to remain in place on gun violence. Enough is enough. We all need to do our part and cannot stop until we see actions which will help reduce the pandemic of gun violence. Let's inoculate our nation and give ourselves a shot in the arm to help save lives.

Elliott Hartstein

Northbrook