To the Editor:

At Southbury's 4/5/18 Board of Selectmen meeting, the agenda included voting on a resolution requesting that our state representatives vote Yes on two bills that would make Connecticut safer. One bill prohibits the manufacture, sale, or purchase of devices that can turn any gun into a machine gun. The other regulates the sale and purchase of do-it-yourself kits that allow anyone to make a gun at home in order to bypass the background check system. These are common sense laws.

Yet several people spoke to oppose these bills and objected to the time the board was spending discussing them. One person complained that he was "sick and tired" of having to come out at night to "another meeting to defend [his] rights." He continued that he was forced to "skip [helping] his son's homework assignment." I wish that he would have taken the extra step to put himself in the shoes of one of the parents of the students killed in Parkland. That would give him a better perspective about why coming together to discuss this issue is time well spent.

I, too, am sick and tired of having to defend myself against accusations that trying to reduce gun violence is a partisan issue pushed by "a small group of leftist, radical, extremist Democrats." I ask you, does trying to solve the problem of 30,000 gun deaths a year seem like a radical action to take? It's long past time to stop name calling and do something.

Yours truly,

Rich Boritz

401A Heritage Village, Southbury        April 9, 2018