Letters to the Editor

+ An idea for increased police presence in schools
Dear Editor:
I am concerned about local school safety as are most Americans after the massacre in Connecticut.
I think it should be considered that Sarasota City Police be assigned to take their breaks/lunch when in the area of a city school and when it is their normal time to stop take a break or during lunch. The teacher’s lounge would be a good place to get a coffee or to lunch with the students. County sheriffs could do the same thing in the schools in the county. 

This would be a low-cost means of providing some protection for the students and reflect the presence of police at unscheduled times at local schools with the presence of a police car outside, as well as the presence of an armed officer in the school.  The school board should buy the policemen lunch and pay for the coffee. It’s a small change for a valuable service.  And the policeman would have the joy, in most cases, of eating with admiring and delighted students and staff.  

Thanks for hearing me out.
Jim Morris
Sarasota

+ Do not infringe on the rights of U.S. citizens
Dear Editor:
So-called leaders in government, along with gun-control advocates in the media, speak about guns as a “tradition” of a “gun culture” as a phobia; of how they would preserve our right to hunt and target-shoot and as if the government confers our rights upon us.

Our right to keep and bear arms is not about tradition, hunting or sport and no government confers that right to anyone. It is about our unalienable right to defend our lives, property and liberties against any attacker, especially the government. This is why “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Limiting the style or type of firearm a citizen of the United States is “allowed” to own is an infringement of that right.

The Bill of Rights does not give us our rights. It merely lists the rights most easily lost when government fails to fulfill its reason for existence:

“That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men … That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it …”

The Founders realized if people did not have access to the same weaponry as government, it would not be possible to fight against the tyranny that is sure to come. It is not possible for a disarmed people to alter or abolish anything.

Do not enact laws or regulations that infringe on our rights. Doing so is a violation of the very reason for the existence of government, as stated and signed by representatives from all 13 colonies then codified, clarified and ratified via the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The same Constitution you, Mr. President, governors and members of various legislatures, are oath-bound to support and defend.
Tad MacKie
Sarasota