Letters to the Editor

Volume VI Number 14
April 9-15, 1998

Help SPCA Raise $50,000 May 17

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

Thank you very much for your support and sponsorship of the SPCA's 1998 Walk for the Animals. Your donated services are invaluable to the success of the walk as we will strive to increase our walker participation this year.

Our goal is to raise at least $50,000 (and hopefully much more). With your help, we are hoping to attract more walkers who in turn will collect numerous pledge sponsors.

Once again, on behalf of the homeless animals, thank you.

-JoAnn Lamp, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Anne Arundel County

On Guns, Del. Owings Should Think Again

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

It's a sad irony that Delegate George Owings (D-27B) touted his strong stance against gun control at the same time two boys 11 and 13 years old brutally shot and killed four school girls and a pregnant teacher.

Yet those shootings were only the most recent chapters of a sad story. With even our schools and offices are no longer safe, America leads the civilized world in deaths by gunfire, with more teenagers dying from gunshots than from all natural causes combined.

What has our delegate's response been to this outrageous national tragedy? First, he regularly opposes even the most modest common-sense gun legislation. Second, he regularly advocates legislation that would actually make it easier to carry handguns in public.

When 16 kindergarten children were shot in Scotland two years ago (in 1992 there were 33 gun deaths in the U.K. compared to 13,200 in the U.S.) the British public and government responded by requiring strict licensing of private handguns. Does Delegate Owings instead believe that our recent tragedies could have been avoided if all the teachers or lottery office workers had guns strapped under their belts?

Instead of trying to keep guns out of the hands of children, criminals, domestic abusers and those with a history of instability, is the solution an even more armed public? It is hard to imagine that schools and our places of employment should be protected by putting more guns into circulation. I similarly think few would find it very comforting in rush hour traffic or walking on our boardwalk if everyone had a concealed weapon.

With an election approaching and the nation increasingly numb to rampant gun violence, I encourage Delegate Owings to reconsider his staunch opposition to common-sense gun provisions.

-Chris Homan, North Beach

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