Dear Editor,

Well there you go, people. New Zealand’s leaders just showed us how it’s done. Just days, [less than a week] after a mass shooting, in two places of worship, their leaders took action to stop future attacks. They banned all military grade weapons that were used in the attacks. They decided it is more important to protect the majority of innocents than to protect the rights of the few that demand that it is their right to own such weapons. Kudos to them.

It’s too bad that we don’t have the leadership of the same caliber. Instead, we are stuck with leaders worried about the status quo and doing whatever it takes to keep their cushy, high paying jobs. All they keep doing is pandering to either the far left or the far right and no matter what, they will not take on the special interest groups that are dictating policy in this country.

With leadership like this, we are doomed to keep repeating the past. All the years of debate and all the lives lost and bodies broken, the only thing that’s been accomplished, on a national level, is a ban on bump stocks. That is pretty dismal results. It’s embarrassing that our leaders don’t have the backbone to be leaders.

James E. Schmader,

Bear Lake