To the editor:

I’m getting saddened and depressed as I watch the evening news. We seem to have a epidemic of people using guns to express their pain or impose their will or just outright commit a crime. It seems the folks that compile the programming for the news commentators along with many public demonstrations are obsessed with limiting the use of guns and regulating them. The evidence seems to indicate that regulations are only an inconvenience to the vast majority of law-abiding citizens and have little effect on those choosing to do harm to others.

Why are we in this state now? Many of us baby boomers grew up in a era where it was not uncommon to see a gun rack with a gun in a pickup truck. At that time, people often left their keys in their vehicles, and only rarely did anything negative happen. Neighbors would see a person walking into town and they would stop and give them a ride.

Now 50 years later and we fear going out, so what has changed to cause this violence in our communities? We have lost all pride in moral living along with respect for each other. Our children are raised in community day cares rather than at home. Both parents must be employed to support a household.

We think and talk about the good old days. We didn’t have many of the convenience we have today. If we did have then, they were considered luxuries. Maybe a party line phone on the wall, a small black and white TV, life was based around the family and we all went to church on Sunday morning. Right and wrong moral issues were learned at home. To bring shame or embarrassment to the family name was the ultimate family sin and brought immediate retribution from the head of the family.

Child labor and safety regulations are good and important. They should not inhibit a teenager from learning the value of working for what they desire. Light work or babysitting in the neighborhood was once commonplace. Even field work at a neighbor’s farm. Here is where you learn that your good name and reputation will work to their benefit. They soon learn that the pleasures of life have a price paid in the effort to earn them while they learned the value of a good name and reputation.

William Gerhard, Scipio