Editorial: Congress must come to grips with difficulties of Second Amendment – New Haven Register

Once again, anger coupled with a weapon has unleashed another strike against the heart of what we stand for as a society: democracy.

Again, heavily armed law enforcement, yellow police tape, along with shock, grief and tears are formidable reminders of the aftermath we as a society must deal with after another man with a weapon delivers another grim message.

This time, the gunman used a high-powered rifle to spray a reign of terror over Republican members of Congress while they held a morning baseball practice to get ready for the annual Congressional Baseball Game, a tradition since 1909.

When it was over, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., along with two Capitol police officers, Crystal Griner and David Bailey, congressional staffer Zach Barth and lobbyist Matt Mika all were wounded. Scalise and Mika were listed in critical condition as of Wednesday evening.

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The gunman, identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson III from Illinois, drives home how vulnerable we continue to be as a society of free will where the rights of people are paramount. The gunman was killed, but thankfully no others were. Lawmakers agree that but for the actions of Capitol police on the scene, the carnage could have been much worse.

According to the New York Times, Hodgkinson was distraught over the election of President Donald Trump and he was a supporter of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

We have been down this road before and though the names of the wounded and the dead change, the message to the United States remains the same: there are too many guns on the streets of America and too many with the wrong fingers on the trigger.

But a division of opinions, even in a hot political climate, shouldnt bring harm to those delivering a message or those supporting it.

So much of what we are and do as a society depends on the trust and allegiance of our fellow man and the ability to walk amongst each other unencumbered. But with more than 300 million guns on the streets and too many in the hands of the wrong people more solutions are needed.

No angry gunman will destroy what we are as a society, nor our determination to continue forth with our values as a nation.

Trump said, in part, we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace, and that we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good.

But to do that, Congress must come to grips with the difficulties of the Second Amendment and take action to tighten the nations gun laws.

Here in Connecticut, where we have some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, we are aware of that.

Every bullet that takes away another loved one or takes aim at another long cherished tradition, leaves us more disillusioned about our safety if Congress doesnt do something about the proliferation of guns.

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Editorial: Congress must come to grips with difficulties of Second Amendment - New Haven Register