Clinton backwards on guns

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton is totally backwards in her understanding of the Coral Ridge Mall shooting and more. In fact, when Andrea Farrington was shot numerous times in the back on June 12, an undercover Johnson County sheriff’s deputy was only 20 feet away. Two Coralville policemen were only 50 feet away. They not only were utterly unable to save Farrington’s life, they couldn’t apprehend her attacker, who had been working at the mall as an alleged guard. Wearing a uniform doesn’t magically make a person any kind of hero.

Instead, the apprehension happened 47 miles away near Walcott when alleged shooter Alexander Kozak faced cops with guns who were ready to use them, at which point Kozak discovered the virtues of calming down. If visibly armed guards or visibly armed citizens had been near Farrington when Kozak ambushed her, the cowardly attack would likely have been scared off by weapons and the love-starved psycho would have been motivated to pause and consider wiser options. As has been seen numerous times before, a “gun-free zone” is merely an open invitation to nuts to unleash their bizarre frustrations.

Hillary sees “… a danger, a threat, everywhere in our country.”     Evidently she prefers to sit in judgment with a background-check system. We already have that way of doing things in use, and psychology put a gun into the hands of Taleb Salameh, who shot three policemen in North Liberty in 2013. Unfortunately, neither Clinton nor her psychology screeners can read minds or predict the future, anymore than psychologist Anne Cleary understood Gang Lu in Iowa City in 1991 when she blackmailed him concerning his free-speech rights. El Salvador and Syria don’t have a Second Amendment. Their citizens seek refuge here, where Americans without Clinton have a right to defend ourselves against psychos and aspiring dictators.

— Randy Crawford

O’Malley’s tenacity

In my years of fighting for equality I’ve learned many things, one of them, you cannot let your fear of public opinion dictate your actions. The fight for social justice demands more from leaders. Martin O’Malley has started many unpopular battles and he has finished all of them. When governor of Maryland, O’Malley promised to eliminate the death penalty, pass smart gun legislation to save lives, and make college affordable to all Marylanders. These weren’t popular stances and yet through his tenacity and perseverance as a progressive executive, he got this legislation enacted. O’Malley is a true leader who stands firm in his principles.

If Dr. Martin Luther King had listened to popular opinion, the civil-rights movement would have been derailed by compromise, and hate would have triumphed. In a time where it seems easy to distrust the political system, we must champion a new leader who does not break or bend but works for the good of all people. For this reason, I support O’Malley and urge you, in Iowa with the responsibility of electing our new president, to join me in standing with him to rebuild the American Dream for all Americans.

­ — Dr. John D Maguire

Claremont Graduate University

Institute for Democratic Renewal senior fellow

Dobyns’ well-earned defeat

Austin Petroski states in his Daily Iowan article that Rick Dobyns is a member of “the more moderate group of candidates.”

Did you miss the fact that he was trying to take the Senior Center away from seniors? We had to go to meetings to save it from becoming an office building. Dobyns was more concerned about creating an extra little bit of revenue by turning it into an office building.

We had to fight really hard to block him from doing this.

If you can call his behavior “moderate,” you need to look at your own beliefs regarding seniors and their rights.

— Mari Struxness