Peter Graffagnino of Bridgeville is a retired educator.
In response to the Opinion by Jeff Hague, titled “U.S. gun statistics difficult to compare,” for the record, I agree with you. However, you seem to have the same response that Mr. John Drennen did to my Opinion regarding the mail I received from “BRADY United Against Gun Violence.”
Note the following statements that you recently made:
I suggest, if you find the statistics from BRADY United Against Gun Violence biased, that you contact the group directly and voice your concern.
As I wrote to Mr. Drennen, I am not the author of the mailing from BRADY United Against Gun Violence. I am only the reporter, not the author of same.
I further suggest that you research my Opinion regarding school shootings, posted in December 2023. Here is an excerpt:
“You send your children to school. Some walk to school. Others get rides from either a parent or by school bus. They are going to school to learn. Something happens. A shooting. It can happen at any level of education, kindergarten through college. Shots are fired. People run for their lives. Children of all different ages are killed. Sometimes, staff members of the schools in question are also victims. Parents rush to the scene, praying that their children are still alive. Most children are alive. Some are not. Some have been torn apart so badly they can’t even be identified. The parents of these children are sent to the county or city morgue to identify what was once their child. How can a parent live with such a loss? And what about the children who weren’t killed? How can they ever feel completely safe in any environment? Try telling those children who survived such an attack and their parents that ‘guns don’t kill people; people kill people.’ Do you really think that the survivors of an event like a school shooting give a hoot about a statement like that?”
In that report, I list gun attacks that happened in schools from Dec. 14, 2012, through March 27, 2023, nationwide, preschool through college. If you like, I can give you the list of each school that lived through such horror. The list comes from sandyhookpromise.org. There were just shy of 40 schools nationwide that had such events in that time period, with countless fatalities. Two stand out in my mind. In Connecticut, a middle school student got hold of an attack weapon and killed countless children as young as 5 or 6 in the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The other one that comes to mind was the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. That event prompted a TV special that was broadcast nationwide. The student moderator turned to then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who was in attendance, and asked him to pledge — at that very moment, in front of all the people watching nationwide — not to take any funding from the National Rifle Association. Rubio said nothing and had the look of a deer caught in a car’s headlights.
For the record, I was a gun owner and enjoyed target practicing. When my first child was born, I got rid of my trusty .22 and for a very good reason. Children are very curious. I promise you, if you place your firearm in an unsecured area, they will find same. There has been more than one occasion in the last few years here in Delaware when a child brought a gun to school. I plead with gun owners to secure your weapons and ammo if you have children, to avoid such an issue and, unfortunately, the possibility of something much worse.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
