LETTERS: Citizens could have prevented shooting

To the editor:

The more details of the June 8 Cici’s Pizza/Wal-Mart shootings are disseminated, the more incensed I become. I cannot get the thought out of my head that several people — most notably Kelley Fielder, the Millers’ roommate — had very good reason to believe that a felony was going to be committed but did absolutely nothing about it. Why they have not been charged for being complicit to murder is a travesty of justice.

In a TV interview, Ms. Fielder admits she was told by Jerad Miller that he was going to go out and kill some cops. She saw the couple leave the apartment with backpacks and guns the day of the shooting. Earth to Ms. Fielder: Contact the authorities. Somebody is about to be killed. Why and when is a citizen exonerated from civic responsibility in such a case?

I’m sure a large demographic in this valley, and for that matter in this nation, would like to see a law enacted that promulgates appropriate responsibility in such circumstances. If that were the case, this senseless tragedy may not have ever occurred.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., made it a point to weigh in on the matter: “Today is a tragic day for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and our entire community. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by today’s senseless shooting, especially the family and friends of the victims.” I have never been a proponent of politicians getting on the record, echoing platitudinous sentiment when tragedy strikes. Stating the obvious mitigates any attempt at genuine intent, leaving the message to take on a perfunctory tone. A person would have to be experiencing dementia or some other similar psychological disorder not to feel empathy in such a circumstance.

You’re a lawmaker, Rep. Titus. Initiate legislation that addresses this issue. Enactment of appropriate laws may very well save lives somewhere down the line.

JAMES O’ROURKE

LAS VEGAS

Tea party implications

To the editor:

I am in complete agreement with Doug Chapman’s letter regarding this newspaper’s implications of tea party involvement in the awful shootings of two police officers and a civilian (“Shooting details politicized tragedy,” Friday Review-Journal).

It is fair journalism to report that the officers’ bodies were covered with a “Don’t tread on me” flag, but to take that fact to the next level by clearly implicating the tea party is something beyond journalism. It is despicable. How and why did this get by the editor?

BEVERLY KING

LAS VEGAS

Armed civilians

To the editor:

Letter writer Steve Mitchell is obviously an anti-gun advocate (“What say the NRA?” Friday Review-Journal). He ridicules the National Rifle Association’s quote, “The way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Mr. Mitchell thinks that all the hero Joseph Wilcox accomplished by brandishing his gun was getting himself killed.

Why does the anti-gun crowd invariably twist the facts to bolster their agenda? Mr. Wilcox compelled the two crazy killers to deviate from their objective and concentrate on killing this threat to their plan — thereby giving all the other customers in Wal-Mart a chance to leave the store safely. And if there had been a few more armed civilians present, the crazy killers would have been taken care of in short order.

So the NRA quote is accurate, and contrary to what Mr. Mitchell says, the best thing we can do to stop gun violence and the slaughter of innocent people is to arm ourselves with handguns. Those crazy killers would not have attempted their mission if they knew that most citizens carried a firearm. In Switzerland, where able-bodied citizens are encouraged to carry a gun, this tragedy would not have occurred.

Isn’t it a shame that there weren’t a few citizens with guns at Cici’s Pizza when these maniacs came in?

HOWARD THOMPSON

LAS VEGAS