Should we listen to kids or NRA?

This is a response to Ms. Thorner's odd question about why we should listen to the emotional reactions of a "bunch of teenagers who were victims of gun violence at their school." What? Seriously, lady, where is your heart? That's precisely why we should listen to them.

Have you ever sat terrified in a closet while some kid with an automatic weapon was walking up and down the hallway shooting people? I think not.

We should listen to them for the same reason people have listened to youth throughout history - because the older generations (myself included) have become jaded and numb to the insanity … and they have not.

They want a better and safer world than we are currently providing for them. And before you start labeling me as a "liberal reacting to gun violence like Pavlov's dogs" I am neither far left nor far right. I am one of the millions of people who occupy the too-silent middle … and I have had enough.

And stop with the lame statistics about more people getting killed with knives and blunt objects. If I had a choice, I would rather take my chances with a nut carrying a baseball bat than one who has an automatic weapon. I have no interest in erasing the Second Amendment or taking away your guns. But open your heart and your mind to the possibility that the way the NRA is "doing business" in America is not helping any of us.

For me, I'll be listening to what the teenagers from Florida have to say, as I believe I may have heard this once or twice before "and a child will lead them."

Rhonda Howard

Fox Lake