Readers write: Letters to the editor, April 22, 2016

My thanks to the Rev. Matt Schultz and the Rev. Michael Burke (ADN, April 15) and more than a dozen co-sponsors for your wonderfully intelligent commentary. With well over 700,000 Alaskans from all over globe representing so many cultures and religions, it boggles the mind that one religious group’s take on the Bible should dictate Alaska legislation (and elsewhere in the country!). My favorite sentence in the column: “Religious freedom is a pillar of our nation, designed not only to protect the government from being nudged toward theocracy by radicalized groups, but also to protect the individual from having religion imposed upon them by the government.” Amen.

— Carole Shay

Wasilla

Who lives next door to you? Hopefully, someone with common sense and the ability to find solutions to problems that help define a successful neighborhood. If not, good luck!

Enough second-guessing. After living here almost 48 years, I have begun to see a climate of change among the population in Anchorage, as if we are the Wild West and the options of critical thinking skills have diminished to draw and shoot.

A gun is a tool. A tool to kill. Yes, you can target-shoot with it, but it is a tool to kill. Period.

The more tools we have to negotiate the problems of this world, one would think, the better. However, some people use the wrong tool to solve a problem that creates something beyond repair.

This is not about Second Amendment rights or self-protection or liberal views. It is about critical thinking skills and the lack of.

Do you know who your neighbors are? Maybe it is time to find out.

— Craig Walker

Anchorage

First day on overtime pay and the Republican majority advances more cuts for state troopers and other workers, even while giving millions more for the oil industry. Our giveaways, next year, pay out about $1 billion more than we get from oil. I think these Republican legislators may be fishing for money to fuel their campaigns this fall. Following the directions of the two uber-rich Texas oilmen with local political offices that give out lots of political money may be just too good for them to pass up.

Too bad our legislative leadership is not more interested in the needs of Alaskans.

— Rod McCoy

Anchorage

It would seem the GOP majority in the state Legislature has made a point of pushing through SB 174 despite its glaring failure to even make a showing of concern over the impacts of the bill. I think it only appropriate for the Anchorage School District to step up to protect our children.

ASD must take the unfortunate step of actually erecting a temporary 1,000-foot perimeter on UAA’s west campus designating gun-free zones to protect the grounds of Lake Otis Elementary School and the King Career Center, making it clear ASD will insist local, state and federal officials will take all appropriate action to ensure anyone in possession of a firearm in those zones is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The agencies must take steps to agree to mutually assist each other on violations.

Personally, I would like to see a couple of dozen people with metal detectors at the perimeter. That makes it clear to those who are avoiding the unpleasant task of actually having to do their job and fund government by promoting this ill-advised fiasco, that Alaskans are not going to stand for anyone making our elementary children unsafe by encouraging the possession of firearms in school zones.

Perhaps the Anchorage School Board could go the extra distance and present the leaders of both chambers with a yardstick?

— Marc Grober

Anchorage