David Rodriguez: Gun laws need to be changed

As a child growing up in the '60s, I remember a teacher walking into our third-grade class with tears in her eyes, informing our teacher and her students that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

Some years later, I got a chance to go see Robert Kennedy at the old Amtrak station in Merced give a political speech for his presidency. In 1968, Martin Luther King, a great man, is assassinated, then Robert Kennedy joins the fold. They now belong to history.

I've been in favor of gun control before I was eligible to vote. I keep hearing guns don't kill people, people kill people, but why would anyone need a military-style assault rifle. Our laws and amendments need to be tweaked.

How many more horrific crimes of mass shooting must occur at school sites, theaters or place of employment before we say enough is enough?

I still remember a phrase from the eulogy that the late Edward Kennedy gave for his brother Robert, that some people see things as they are and say why, my brother saw things as they could be and says why not.

DAVID RODRIGUEZ

Planada