Gun violence facts
Keep in mind a few things about the NRA:
1) More than half of its $350 million income comes from the weapons industry, either through direct donation or through them purchasing NRA memberships for consumers buying their product, making the NRA a powerful weapons lobby using “Second Amendment rights” as a patriotic catch phrase to sell the product. There was a time when its priority was gun safety not gun sales.
2) The NRA spent more than $50 million on the 2016 election through positive ads for Republican candidates or negative ads against Democratic candidates.
3) Gun sales go up after mass shootings.
4) About 1,300 children die each year due to gun violence.
5) CDC states gun violence resulted in 38,658 deaths in 2016 alone.
6) Deaths on 9/11: about 3,000
8) Money spent on the Iraq war since 2003: $818 billion.
9) President Barack Obama had several points he wanted for gun control: improved background checks and improved ability to respond to mass shootings.
Yes, the most recent school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, was with a shotgun that anybody can buy. In addition to the points that Obama tried to make, perhaps greater legal responsibility should be placed on gun owners. If one of their weapons is used in a homicide, stronger legal action should be taken against them, not just the shooter.
Jim Flavin
New Sweden
Cost of a trade war
Many Americans do not understand what happens in a trade war. They’re thinking it’s about time this country increased tariffs because they don’t fully realize the effect it will have on consumer goods. Prices for everything will increase, and the average consumer will have to pay more for everything.
The trade war will have a detrimental effect on American-grown and -made products. The lack of cheaply paid migrant workers who are hired to do the back-breaking labor for domestically grown goods will actually destroy American farmers. How many Americans are willing to tend and harvest this country’s produce for less than minimum wage? In Maine, minimum wage is $10 an hour, with no health insurance coverage, and no one can live on that because the actual cost of living has escalated beyond the minimum wage. It will not be just grocery store goods that will be much more expensive.
I have spoken to a great number of people who are already having financial problems with basic necessities because the cost of living is not in keeping with wages. There are a great many homeless people in America, and their numbers will grow with the tariffs. Some believe that that will not happen because the effects will be felt after it’s too late. I truly hope that your appliances and TVs don’t need replacing because you won’t be able to replace them, given the increased cost of everything else. I find it very sad to watch this once great country heading for the drain.
Dianne Marie
Carmel
Poliquin doesn’t get it
For the last 15 months, President Donald Trump has launched a relentless attack against the poorest and most vulnerable in our country. Fortunately, our Constitution puts a check on the president in the form of Congress. However, our congressman, Bruce Poliquin, has fallen down on the job.
Poliquin voted last year for the American Health Care Act, which would have cut billions of dollars from Medicaid, the program doing more than any other to fight the opioid crisis raging in Maine and across the country.
Poliquin voted for the disastrous farm bill that would have made deep cuts to food assistance programs, leaving men, women and children without adequate food, and shifting more of the burden onto states and municipalities.
Poliquin has cosponsored legislation that would take back $7 billion in unspent funds from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps chronically ill children in needy families.
He voted for the Trump tax cuts, handing out $1.5 trillion mostly to the wealthy and corporations, while doing nothing to help the 44 million Americans carrying $1.5 trillion in student debt.
The simple reality is that neither Trump nor Poliquin have ever experienced what most people do. They’ve never had to choose between rent and food. They’ve never skipped a dose of life-saving medication so that the prescription will last longer. They’ve never been injured in combat and become addicted to the painkillers Uncle Sam prescribed them. They’ve never struggled to find a copay for a sick child’s medicine.
The reality is that they just don’t get it.
Cathy-Jo Owen
Bangor