My manifesto of hope:

• Immediately prohibit sales of all assault style weapons (let the FBI define which guns qualify) and large capacity magazines;

• Immediately initiate the buyback of existing assault-style weapons, as defined by the FBI, as was done in Australia;

• Pass laws criminalizing any attempts to alter any weapon to make it a more lethal instrument;

• Immediately prohibit open carry laws/ordinances. This is not 1775 nor the wild west of the 1800s;

• Ddemand background checks on all gun sales, whether in stores, online, at gun shows or person-to-person;

• Prohibit all concealed-weapon permits to former or active law enforcement officers;

• Pass laws holding all social media platforms criminally liable for not immediately reporting to law enforcement and taking down all communications containing threats of violence;

• Investigate legislation to assist businesses/communities to screen for hidden weapons and hiring of increased law officers.

Get real. The only Americans who should oppose these steps are: child hunters, anti-government anarchists, white nationalists, the mentally ill, the NRA, the Godless or those politicians corrupted by blood money.

Jim Storer, Westbrook