Bank Robbers Not Glamorous

Poor people do not rob banks, desperately unhappy people do not rob banks, criminals rob banks. I’ve been poor and viciously abused. How come I never robbed a bank?

Only a person who feels safe where he lives could have written that article [“Stick ‘Em Up!“, February 24, 2011]. Only a society that feels safe could glamorize criminals. There is nothing, absolutely nothing glamorous about a person who takes things that belong to other people, or hurts other people. Music or movies that glamorize criminals usually extoll the criminal’s ability to avoid inevitable capture, not their criminal acts per se.

People in societies where law enforcement is either insufficient or complicit in crime see criminals for what they are—vicious, dangerous people who do not respect limits and who commit acts that are inherently violent, even if no one is hurt in any particular single incident. In such societies, when they are caught and law enforcement either cannot or will not deal with them appropriately, criminals are often the targets of mob killings. Is that what we want? As a former United Nations Human Rights Observer, I can tell you that lawlessness is not a chic style, it is a way of life that ruins lives, cultures and societies.

Kathy S. Grey, M.S.
Easthampton

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Gun Madness

How many more gun massacres such as those at Simon’s Rock College, the Long Island Railroad, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now Tucson is it going to take before gun users become he-man enough to acknowledge that their gun possession contributes to a gun culture that enables these gun massacres to occur [“Yes, Guns Kill,” February 10, 2011]?

Guns kill 30,000 Americans every year and wound 70,000 more. That means that guns kill the equivalent of 10 times the number of people killed on 9/11/2001 every year. Since 9/11, guns have killed about 100 times as many Americans as were killed that tragic day.

There are nine guns for every 10 people in the U.S., and guns cause nine out of 10 homicides.

American needs a national gun registration and tax on all guns and a national license and tax on all gun users as well as a tax on bullet sales. Use the proceeds to compensate gun victims and buy back some of the staggering number of guns in our land. At the very least we need to ban all assault weapons and the multi-bullet clips such as those used at Virginia Tech and in Tucson.

How much more of this gun madness will we allow to occur?

Tim Walter
Plainfield

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Censure Capuano

Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano called for the unions to “get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.” Some might call that trying to incite a riot. Have Chairman Obama or Comrades Pelosi or Reid chided Capuano for saying that? Will anyone one call for an official censure of Capuano for calling for a criminal act by the masses? Had this been a Republican, he would have been asked to resign by the media. The liberals call for civility from one side of their mouths and call for blood from the other.

Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Penn.