The issue of needless gun violence is endemic throughout our nation. Though Juneau, with its 30-mile berth, may not recognize the problem with such urgency, that concern for the national well-being, often unspoken but inherent in all who love our country, must sense the demeaning and almost heinous, insidiousness of this often “knee-jerk” finality when they’re used. Its no wonder roughly 90 homicides occur every day from gun violence throughout the nation! Even with its vast wilderness, this statistic likely applies to Alaska. Certainly so in Anchorage, but also likely across the Interior and hinterlands of Bush Alaska!
The problem is proliferation — nearly a “deluge” — of unsecured weapons that literally fall into the hands of those irresponsible, incompetent and untrained with the use of these handguns, or with this absurd availability for civilian use, of military weapons. If the drive-by projectile that skirted over a resident’s head recreating on Fourth Street near Harrison a couple months back (right here in Juneau) were not a wake-up to this burgeoning insanity, I don’t know what will sound the alarm for you. I just so happened to be outside on Fifth Street near Gold when the “crack” sound, while not even knowing what it was, caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand at attention in some kind of unconscious distress.
The confines of our residential areas must require hand-gun regulation; completely unconscious innocence is being threatened. On June 2, of this year, the nation will be recognizing this kind of heinous, weapons of war, social abuses as “Gun Violence Awareness Day.” Anyone else so galvanized by this uncivilized and irresponsible gun use in residential/urban localities can join me at 4 p.m. at the Heritage coffee shop downtown where we can meet preceding a march up the street to the Capital and Dimond Courthouse drawing awareness to this issue.
John S. Sonin,
Juneau