Editor’s note: New Haven resident David Lewis, a hunter safety instructor for five years, submitted a letter to the editor that also included a response to the letter from his son Peter, a Massachusetts educator who is director of Bands at Quabbin Regional High School, where he has experienced lock down/harbor in place situations.
In a recent podcast a spokesperson for the NRA was asked how this amendment to our constitution — “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state…” — could be squared with a 19-year-old stalking the halls of a school with an AR-15, killing people indiscriminately and at will. Her answer was a halting non-answer.
And I ask, what protections are there for those innocents being slaughtered? We all need to think about the questions. The amendment only offers protection for those who want to own guns. Those who legislate need to enact protections against under-age buyers, buyers who are mentally handicapped, extremists and fanatics and paraphernalia like bump stocks. Background checks are a must!
If we only continue to quote the Second Amendment, the terrible incidents will continue as well.
David Lewis
New Haven, VT
 
Hi Dad,
I read your letter to the editor and I must admit that I too have been weighed down by all of this. I never entered teaching thinking I would need to worry about my students’ lives, my life, or worse yet, my own children’s lives being in potential danger. And what exacerbates the situation is the very ignorant and even unintelligible response of our political people in power. I have refused to refer to them as leaders because they do not exhibit any qualities of someone possessing leadership skills. As someone who has devoted his life to understanding what leadership is, I feel pretty confident in my assessment.
The reactions of the student demonstrators bear more resemblances of leadership than anyone else I have heard speak.  It made me sick to my stomach to listen to Marco Rubio respond to the questions from the student protesters.
My only hope lies in the students, our youth, who are tired of the empty promises and only demand what they, and we as their teachers, rightly deserve: a safe educational environment with the promise of a better tomorrow.  A new political revolution has been brewing for a long time, and now the children of this country will lead that charge. They have been the silent majority for too long.   It is their time and I will support their voice all I can. These kids are smart, strong, passionate, and unafraid, which makes them dangerous to our current regime of ignorant cowards who let unconscionable, monied alliances buy their seats in government.   Don’t worry, Dad, don’t carry the fear or anger of those who are in power — we are all better than that. Just like the protestors of your generation, we must all rise above and let the youth of this country take us to a new place filled with the hope, dignity, and respect that was the mantra of our previous political leaders. Don’t despair — I feel it is coming.
I have had a recent realization which may be of use to you. Have you ever thought about the fact that the difference between the word “can’t” and “can” is one letter? I am not going to let one letter stop me. These kids aren’t either.
Love, Peter
Peter Lewis
Barre, Mass.