Letter: A better response to gun violence

Equality Florida, an organization that champions LGBT rights, has raised more than $6 million for victims of the tragic massacre of 49 and injury of 46 people in Orlando, according to the deputy director, Stratton Pollitzer.

My son Stratton is a 1986 graduate of Beaufort High School, where he was valedictorian, vice president of the student body, and received the scholar/athlete and the “Spirit of BHS” awards in his senior year. He was born and raised here and with his co-founder, Nadine Smith, organized and set up Equality Florida in 1997. It now operates statewide, and he also supports the work of Equality South Carolina in our state.

In my opinion, we cannot incarcerate or keep under surveillance all people who have anger management problems, are deeply depressed, have been fired from their job or rejected by a spouse or partner, been part of a drug deal gone wrong, or hold radical religions convictions, racial hatred, or homophobia.

What we can and must do is limit the access of the population to weapons designed for the killing of many people, including automatic rifles and pistols and large magazines. These guns along with other weapons of war, should be locked up in our military compounds. There, even our trained soldiers are not allowed to carry weapons; why do we allow this in the public?

We have allowed the NRA to misinterpret the Second Amendment and promote a violent culture in our great nation. It will take many decades to reign in this problem.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Letter: A better response to gun violence."