Tom Mauser

            Tom Mauser became a gun control activist after loosing his son in the tragic Columbine High school shooting and now works to promote reasonable gun safety legislation in the state of Colorado. In his speech at Dawson he made many points relating to gun safety and legislation, but the points that were the most impactful were on fixing the loopholes in the Brady Bill and background checks. Mauser discussed several legal methods of purchasing a gun, some of which involve background checks and others did not. Before his speech, I had been unaware there were legal ways to acquire a gun without a background check, and I was shocked to find out that the shooters at Columbine High school acquired their gun through a method which did not require a background check. Mauser took an impressively moderate and reasonable stance on his issues and combatted his opponents criticisms with well thought out rational and facts. I left his speech knowing more about gun legislation than I ever had and simultaneously feeling infuriated by those who refuse to support reasonable gun legislation. I feel, similarly to Mauser that reasonable gun legislation involves background checks and training before obtaining a conceal and carry permit. 

I didn’t feel like anything was missing from his speech and my only question left after his talk would be “ why would anyone oppose background checks on all gun purchasers”. Mauser’s talk reinforced my opinions on the need for gun control and also shed a new interesting light on concealed weapons. Before his talk, I thought I would probably feel safer around people who had concealed weapons. After he made the point about the caos that could have potentially happened if ten people had possessed concealed weapons in the Aurora theater shooting, I realised that more guns wouldn’t make things safer if those people had no training. I am very grateful that we were able to listen to such an informative and fascinating speaker. 

Letter to the Editor

Mr. Editor,
        I was absolutely aghast by the appalling autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave By Fredrick Douglass. The book illustrates the atrocities we northern abolitionists must be fighting harder against. The images of suffering slaves depicted in his book should make even the hardest of hearts ache. Douglass talks of a slave owner stepping upon his little brothers head “till the blood gushed from his nose and ears” and of the poor raw emaciated bodies of fellow slaves who lived on the edge of starvation. These are clearly no ways to treat fellow humans and these images only strengthened my abolitionist conviction. I implore you to publish excerpts from Douglass’s book in order to show people the atrocities they have been turning a blind eye to for so long.
        Slaves are dehumanized. Often slaves are treated as if they are the intelectual inferiors of white men, but the writings of this black slave proves otherwise. He writes with the skill and intellect of any college graduate and illuminates the hypocrisy which live in our Christian nation. He details the irony in our countries Christianity, as many of the most brutal slave owners call themselves God-loving men. Our nation cannot continue under the false pretenses of being a Godly country when people continue to starve, beat, and murder their fellow men. Douglass’s narrative should be seen by every eye in the nation. Upon reading it, abolitionists will show new conviction, and any slave owner should feel shame. We can no longer pretend slaves are too dumb to deserve basic human rights, but even a beasts should not be treated with the brutality with which a white man treats his slaves. You would not kick a dog who lays at your feet nor step on its head with your boot. Why then do we treat intelectual beings with such cold-hearted violence? As a northern newspaper, you owe it to the people to publish excerpts of this narrative and unmask the atrocities of the South.