Letter: Shooting, rally are distressing

How sad to learn last night that there was another serious gun incident in our area.

A Hudson father in an argument with his son began shooting at him! The son called the police, and then thankfully escaped with three friends.

A lengthy standoff with the police ensued and more shots were fired. The father was hospitalized in critical condition.

We attended the pro-gun, anti-tax and government rally in Hudson Saturday afternoon. They exercised their rights to free speech and assembly. We exercised ours to respectfully disagree, with a few signs and a flyer.

We heard some astonishing rhetoric, some coming from the stage and candidates for office in next year’s elections.

One I will recall: “I won’t let the tank of Marxism run over my children!”

To be fair, we were thanked for coming by a number of people and received some quietly positive comments. But there were people there just spoiling for a fight.

As a mom and grandmom, I found it profoundly disturbing to see people strolling around with a gun (and sometimes two!) strapped on, especially in the presence of many children.

No one I know suggests that all guns be banned. That’s not practical or realistic in our America.

But, surely, we should talk about safety and try to find a place to agree.

I remain convinced that assault weapons aren’t necessary for hunting and that “packing heat” openly or covertly in public places cannot be a positive thing.

I have no way of knowing if that Hudson family subscribed to what we observed at the rally. It would be sadly ironic if they did.

Regardless, this is a tragedy that might have been avoided, and exactly what I worry about when thinking about gun safety.

Tags: letters to editor, opinion