Celine Champagne: Parents of victims are forced to see results of gun violence

To the Daily Sun,

I just want to thank Ragnar Loftbrook for putting in print what I’ve been saying since the Robb School massacre. The one difference of opinion I have though is blow up the pictures and force the GOP to look at them when they’re in session voting on the gun laws. Parents of these young students should follow Emmett Till’s mother’s example. “On August 31, 1955, Till’s corpse was discovered in the river. His face was unrecognizable as a result of the assault, and positive identification was possible only because Till was wearing a monogrammed ring that had belonged to his father. On September 2, less than two weeks after Till had embarked on his journey south, the train bearing his remains arrived in Chicago. Till’s mother kept her son’s casket open, choosing to reveal to the tens of thousands who attended the funeral the brutality that had been visited on her son. The appalling images of Till’s body in the casket appeared in the pages of Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender, and his murder became a rallying point for the civil rights movement.” Had she not allowed the mutilated body of her son to be viewed by all, nothing would’ve been done. The best of imagination can’t possibly see how these little bodies looked after being hit by an AR-15; unfortunately the parents had to see it as did the one pediatrician. If the images don’t move your representative, then you can believe where his/her heart is; it’s not with you nor country.

A word to Rep. Richard Littlefield, if every gun in the country was destroyed tomorrow, criminals would use knives, etc. Sure they would, but how many can one kill with a knife in a matter of seconds as with an AR-15?

Celine Champagne

Belmont