Letter: The point of no return

As I sat with my family and watched the Fourth of July parade in Crystal Lake on Sunday, it crossed my mind: “When will there be a shooting incident at a parade?”

I got my answer Monday when the Highland Park parade became the target of our latest mass shooting. It had been 53 days since May 14, when 10 people were killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. It had been 43 days since May 24, when 19 children and two teachers were killed at a school in Uvalde, Texas. Now we have seven dead in our own backyard while watching a Fourth of July parade. Get the picture?

We are all at the mercy of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We live in a country that allows this carnage to happen repeatedly with very little effort to prevent it.

I am a Navy veteran. I took an oath to protect the Constitution, but I am convinced this is not what our founders meant when they wrote the Second Amendment. If there is anything that should influence your vote, it is where this country is headed with regards to gun violence. There is one party with their hands in the pocket of the NRA and its radical policies about gun ownership, and there is one party committed to strengthening gun laws and limiting access to weapons like those used in the three mass shootings referenced above.

There will be those that argue it is their Second Amendment right. What about the rights of the 38 people who were slaughtered? Vote like your life depends on it, because it does.

Paul Ruger

Crystal Lake