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Letter: It comes down to this: Should we protect the lives of innocent children or the right to own guns?

A police officer passes a mourner outside Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday's shooting at the school, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

We all grieve at the recent mass shooting that shattered a community in Minneapolis. The partial solution to this ubiquitous carnage seems self-evident — to borrow a phrase from the Declaration of Independence.

What should we as a nation protect, the lives of innocent children or the right to own guns?

That same document continues: We are all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Life heads this list and helps me decide which of these two sides must attenuate its views.

Protecting our children’s unalienable right to life should not be compromised. Can we all agree on that?

Restrictions on gun ownership, AR-15s, ammunition, gun registration, longer waiting periods and more thorough background checks would save lives and still leave the Second Amendment intact.

Thomas Durham, Sandy

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