I was dismayed with the Rich Lowry opinion piece in the April 7 edition of the Coastal Courier. Mr. Lowery criticizes the protesting students as juvenile, under-informed, and sophomoric among other things, because of the blatant way the students blame government and society for their inaction to the mass shootings that continue to blight our country.

I want to point out that these students have experience that Mr. Lowry lacks— being at the school while their classmates are shot.
The students have been criticized by others as being manipulated by left-wing zealots. It is a common tactic to assault or insult the messenger to discredit the message. I am sure most of the parents of the Parkland students also have concerns for the safety of their children and are in support of the students speaking out against gun violence.

A lot of solutions proposed by authorities involve beefing up school security with fences, gates, metal detectors and more armed security personnel. This starts to sound like a prison now, and this security would also be needed at theaters, churches and shopping malls to be effective for public safety.
Before you dismiss my point, I am not a left-wing zealot but a lifelong resident of Liberty county, I do own firearms and consider the best home defense weapon to be a 12 gauge shotgun.

There are loopholes in current gun laws that are used by some people that cannot get guns legally, and that may be a good place for legislators to start. Thoughts and prayers, and moments of silence by congress tell the victims and their families that, “yes we know about it but we are not going to do anything.”

Mr. Lowry is probably safe in his gated community. He should stop picking on high school students and explain why he feels that firearm regulations are already adequate.