To the editor:

On Dec. 14, 20 schoolchildren in Connecticut and six teachers became innocent victims slaughtered by an assault rifle. There are already lame excuses by the gun lobby and NRA as to why automatic “weapons of mass destruction” are essential to our American way of life.  Others will blame it on taking prayer out of our schools, thus rejecting God, so somehow our loving and kind, “Father in Heaven,” as payback, allows such carnage in Newtown along with 9/11, AIDS, and all other bad things imaginable. (Public Forum, Dec. 21)

Assault weapons are designed to kill people, not deer! Today, crazy people determined to slaughter children with assault rifles and 30-round magazines will continue to do so. Prayers in school will not prevent this! Until Congress finds the will power to ban assault weapons and killing clips, innocents will continue to needlessly die.

How many more children does it take until we stand up and solve these deadly, brutal, senseless tragedies? There is one Kansas governor, 535 members of our Congress, slightly over 4.3 million members of the NRA compared to over 300 million citizens of the United States! Who can make these changes? You do the math.  Look in the mirror!

If we don’t address this problem, it is our fault, and we all will be responsible next time. Sadly, next time it could easily happen in Lawrence.  Then, they would be your kids bleeding and dying in our public school classrooms; they would be mine.