To the editor:

It seems as though not a week goes by that I don’t read of or see on the 10 o’clock news that another young thug has fired a gun and injured or murdered another individual, many times an innocent bystander.

I wish that I could talk with one of these monsters and ask just what is going through their minds when they deliberately attempt to take a human life. They take a life just as easily as I swat a fly. It just boggles my mind how a person can have no conscience or moral compass to engage in such a heinous act.

In Kansas City, as well as other cities, they drive by and fire multiple shots into a house, obviously not caring who the victims may be; there is not a bit of respect for human life.

Most of my life I have been against capital punishment because of the obvious fear you may be executing an innocent person. But, in circumstances like what happened in Lawrence in front of the Granada Theater, there is conclusive evidence to convict those responsible. There has to be more of a deterrent. Is it fair for the friends and family of murdered victims to pay taxes to clothe, feed and provide medical services for the very monsters who took away their loved one?

If this trend of indiscriminate murders continues and the prisons are already overflowing, what do you think is going to happen in the future? The peace loving people in the future will have to consider ways of securing their safety.

Craig Tucker,

Lawrence