Poignant messages to DeWine after Dayton shootings full of emotion
“My nephew held one of the victims Saturday night in his lap as he died, helpless to do anything to revive him ...”
“I had the unfortunate experience of attending Bellbrook High School with the shooter ... My friends and I would talk about how he would be the most likely to shoot up a school one day. That one day has become today ...”
“My sister lives next door to the parents of the Dayton shooter. She could hear the mother scream and said it sounded like she was being ripped in half ...”
“Last night, in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio (just 25 miles north of us), my 20-year-old daughter told me she was afraid to go shopping, to go to the movies, to be outside at festivals ...”
The hundreds of messages sent to Gov. Mike DeWine in the wake of the Dayton shooting that killed nine people on Aug. 4 were raw, angry and fearful. And reading a new batch just released by the governor’s office in response to a Dispatch public-records request shows their strong contrast to the tepid legislative deliberations held on a modest DeWine measure meant to curb gun violence — a bill that is, quite possibly, headed nowhere.
Such a fate would fulfill the early August prophecy of Pamela Deary of Ashtabula, who told the governor, “I think this will be like all the other times. Everyone will scream about it and eventually it goes away until the next mass shooting. Same old, same old.”
The large majority of the communiques support tougher gun restrictions, although a harshly critical minority (some of whom accuse DeWine of treason) contend the Second Amendment bars any restriction on guns.
(snip)
DeWine released an initial batch of emails and letters in September. But the new round shows people weighing in from across the country, with emails from Topsham, Maine, to Show Low, Arizona, and from Tizi ouzou, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Wilton, Connecticut, where the writer noted that he lived about 25 minutes from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman killed 20 youngsters in 2012.
Many emails urged gun controls ranging from background checks to bans on so-called assault weapons and large magazines of ammunition. Others cited the need for better mental health screening. And numerous gun-rights advocates threatened DeWine politically.
“Please quit blaming legal gun owners for the crazed maniac of the Dayton shootings,” wrote Rusty Anderson of New Paris, near the Indiana border due west of Dayton. “If you pass any gun restriction laws I will never vote for you again. I will also campaign against you ... you will be a one-term governor.”
But the ones with direct Dayton connections were the most powerful.
It was Becky Krakowski of Beavercreek, a Dayton suburb, who described her nephew holding one of those killed in the entertainment district shooting.
“Please stay strong and push ahead,” she urged DeWine. “Common sense gun control can be accomplished and will be your lasting legacy in this state if it is.”
********** I have to agree with the person who said nothing much is going to happen here since our State House is dominated by Rethugs. It is shameful and wrong, but that's what we deal with here every day. An election stolen by gerrymandering and voter purge.
link: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191210/poignant-messages-to-dewine-after-dayton-shootings-full-of-emotion
= new reply since forum marked as read
