Michael Dombrowski: Advertisement: Pull the gun ads
Since I shopped in the Table Mesa King Soopers for 8 years and having taken care of the property for W.W. Reynolds in 1992, I was really distraught over yesterday’s tragedy. When I went through today’s paper, I had to stop at the ad for Broomfield Pawn on page 6C showing the silhouettes of the murder weapon. If the Daily Camera continues to run such ads, it would be nothing but throwing salt on the open wounds of the community at large. The gun lobby has raised up the AR-15 and has made it their god contrary to the words of Exodus 20:3.
Michael Dombrowski
Boulder
Ammon Balaster: Gross Reservoir: No to expansion
I would like to submit the following points regarding the Gross Reservoir & Dam Expansion project.
1) The demand for water in the Denver area is directly related to the number of people in the Denver distribution area (the population).
2) Population is determined and can be controlled by the availability of water. Available water means increased development and increased population.
3) Increased population of the Denver area is a major factor in our social, economic, and infrastructure problems.
Costs associated with these issues rise exponentially with the population while economic benefit and tax base rise only linearly. As a result the cost of these critical problems can never be covered by more growth. Our traffic problem is increasing, crime is expanding, murder is at an all time high, pollution is increasingly unhealthy. Our population growth can be controlled by the availability of water. To move forward judiciously, we need to consider all the ramifications of expanding Gross Reservoir at this time. Does it make sense to provide for faster growth at this point when we are already experiencing the vast costs of the overpopulation we already have? Until we can clearly see our way to solve the growth and overpopulation problems we currently have, it makes no sense to spend 100s of millions of dollars that only exacerbate the problems we currently have. Let’s spend that money to solve the Denver pollution problem, our growing crime problem, our traffic problems, and our expanding social and government issues. Once we have a view to a brighter future for Denver, then we may consider further growth and further expansion of our water supply to accommodate that growth. We should do this if and only if we can see a positive future for our city. We must control growth to a level we can afford to support economically, socially, and healthfully. It is the quality of life of our citizens that counts not the quantity of people per square mile. Hold off on the Gross Dam Expansion and control growth until we see our way to that brighter future for our city. Note: Look to California to see what over-growth and overpopulation can do.
Ammon Balaster
Boulder
Kevin M. Kelleher: Gun experience: Civilians have more
Five years ago, I wrote the Daily Camera calling for common sense gun control legislation. Days earlier, a man in Orlando had murdered 49 people with a SIG MCX rifle.
Online, I saw attempts to discredit gun control advocates as having no experience with firearms. I wrote offering my experience as a Marine, hopeful that someone might consider that it is not merely fear or ignorance that motivates calls for gun control. My own motivation was born of intimate knowledge and respect for weapons. I was confident enough to assert that “few in the civilian world have as much experience as I do with firearms.” I realize now that I was wrong.
Because for the years of my life spent carrying and firing various weapons, I do not know what it is like to lie motionless in a nightclub as a man fires into lifeless bodies around me. I do not know what it is like to scramble through a movie theater as a gunman sprays bullets. And I do not know what it is like to stop in for groceries only to be met by a man shooting fellow shoppers at random. Ten innocent people trying to live their lives.
It is a sobering admission that as someone who has twice deployed to war, I must acknowledge that indeed many civilians have far more experience with firearms than I do.
As the horrors of COVID-19 recede and hope springs new, we are too quickly reminded of the uniquely American specter that lurks, waiting to meet the gathering public. I do not have answers. I can only express my deep despair for a country so far gone that almost a decade after toddlers were executed at Sandy Hook, we have done little else than build grandstands at the gallows
Kevin M. Kelleher
Former Louisville resident
Martin Gerra: Guns: Call for abolition
We don’t yet know what motivated the perpetrator of last week’s horrific events in Boulder. In other developed countries, there are mentally disturbed people, people with deep grievances, and deeply alienated people, but only here do we see these mass shootings by lone gunmen again and again. We can no longer be afraid (out of fear of the NRA or the Republican Party) to speak out against the mass proliferation of firearms in this country. In the 1820’s, those calling for the abolition of slavery were reviled and almost universally disparaged. They made little progress over the next 4 decades, but slavery was abolished, and virtually no thinking people today would reverse that. We must not be afraid to stake out a position for COMPLETE abolishment of the private holding of firearms. Abolition should be on the table now. Yes, it will take a constitutional amendment, or a radical change in the composition of our Supreme Court. But it needs to happen or nothing will change.
Martin Gerra
Boulder