Election interference offensive to all who support democracy
If you are not offended by the use of violence to stop the electoral vote count, you do not support our Constitution. If you are not frightened by the president asking state legislatures to override the certified count of people’s votes, you do not support our democracy. Our nation is a democracy built on the foundation of the constitution. If you do not support our constitution and our democracy, you are not a patriot.
LARRY AUERBACH, ATLANTA
Articles about gun violence victims help personalize tragedies
Thank you for your articles reporting on the people we’ve lost to gun violence and its impact on their families. Bringing readers closer to this problem is an essential part of solving it. Far too often, the gun control debate has become an abstraction, primarily because many people have never personally experienced its damage to the fabric of our society. Empathy and understanding increase as our distance from tragic events decreases. Your articles about the victims and their families are much needed because they take these tragedies from just being statistics and make them personal.
BRIAN JOHNSON, DULUTH
Mass shooting victims fund would make those accountable pay
Our country needs a ban on assault weapons. We also need a mass shooting victims’ fund to pay for funerals, hospital bills and rehabilitation costs - physical, mental and housing modifications that might be needed.
The victims’ fund should be financed by those accountable for the mass shootings as follows:
1.) Gun manufacturers, sellers and advocacy groups such as the NRA: heavy taxes on assault weapons and donations to any political entity would be matched 100% with contributions to the fund;
2.) Politicians, their campaigns and any PAC supporting them: any receiving donations from the groups in () would be required to contribute 50% of those donations to the victims’ fund;
3.) parents, guardians, or relatives of under-21-years-of-age mass shooters who have facilitated in any way the purchase of weapons for the mass shooter should contribute 10% of their income for life into the victims’ fund and 10% of their estates upon death into the victims’ fund.
SANDY GAINES WOOD, ATLANTA
Story on gas leak study was incomplete, biased
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered an incomplete study by U.S. PIRG that may give the false impression that the referenced gas leaks relate to operations or maintenance (“Ga. among leading states in gas leaks,” News, July 11).
Most leaks occur from excavating and forces such as vehicles, storms, or in the case of the damage at Cheshire Bridge Road, an illegal fire. Georgia’s damage rate tracks the national average, but compliance with 811 Call Before You Dig can improve.
U.S. PIRG wants to rid the country of natural gas infrastructure and eliminate gas kitchen stoves, despite not having any government agency document risks to respiratory health from their proper use. Even though natural gas distribution companies deliver 99.9% or more of the gas in their systems, the industry is charting a path toward net-zero emissions. Natural gas has proven its role in the transition to a lower-carbon energy future. It is a safe foundational fuel needed for the expansion of renewable sources like wind and solar.
STEPHEN LOFTIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATURAL GAS ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
