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Letters: Facebook group shows it’s not a friend of Annapolis; Buying back weapons of war is a start

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Facebook group

At the top of Main Street was a banner on St. Anne’s fence that declared proudly “All Are Welcome” below the rainbow-colored word Pride.

It’s a wonderful message, so last Wednesday I snapped a photo and shared it to a local Facebook group called “Friends of Annapolis.” The private group has over 17,000 members, and it’s a lovely spot for sharing photos and stories of the city we love. I’ve snapped dozens of photos around town and shared them to the page, but this one was deleted because they deemed it “controversial.”

That’s disappointing, and cowardly.

I can’t speak to the personal views of the page’s administrators, but they did remove images of the local Pride parade, and they removed my photo because, according to one administrator, “it is a controversial subject and leads to arguments.”

This is the problem with social media: We give too much power to negative commenters. If we placate the jerks who post rude comments, then we are siding with their small mindedness. The administrators of the page didn’t want the headache of deleting hateful comments that might show up, so it was easier to delete a photo, rather than support the oldest parish in Annapolis.

Friends of Annapolis is a private group, so it is the prerogative of the administrators to censor how they see fit, but in doing so they are siding with the homophobic and demonstrating that not “All Are Welcome.”

That isn’t being a very good friend of Annapolis.

MELISSA HUSTON

Crownsville

On violence

As an octogenarian, we have spent much time thinking about this topic. Quoting from an ad on TV, “We know a thing or two, because we’ve seen a thing or two.” And so we offer the following:

First, we think “Gun violence” is a “misnomer.” We should be talking about “human violence”. A firearm, in and of itself is not violent. They are “dumb” pieces of metal, and can do no harm, unless a human is involved. So, let us change the discussion to “human violence.”

Second, that reasoning also extends to “assault weapons.” That term is too narrow, defining only a few firearms as “WMDs, weapons of mass destruction.” So, let us use the term as “war weapons.” That term covers a multitude of weapons, not only long weapons, but also IEDs, (home made devices), and a list of “war weapons”. Common everyday vehicles have been used to destroy human life, i.e human violence.

So, lets begin the discussion of “war weapons” and “human violence.”

War weapons, by definition, are used by militaries around the world. War weapons do not belong in the hands of any civilian population, foreign or domestic. So let us ban war weapons across our country. And further let us ban importation of war weapons into the country.

Having done that, how do we remove such war weapons from our civilian population? Let us create a federally sponsored, mandatory “Buy Back Program”, overseen by the Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives using the background Investigation paperwork submitted by all firearm dealers prior to sales.

Will this action stop “Mass Shootings”? The short answer is no, simply because the criminal elements do not obey the law by definition and the mentally imbalanced will find other ways to carry out their rage on mass population. But it is a start.

So, let us begin anew, let there be an up swell of We The People, to demand the federal government take action across the country on this menace, War weapons have no place in civilian populations. And through our election system, let us replace those who insist on the status quo.

RAY ALLEN Sr.

Severn