The latest talk about gun control is all well and good. I don’t see any reason for someone to own a semi-automatic rifle. Perhaps that is a situation that can be addressed through the legal system, but I doubt it.

It seems we are ignoring the real question behind the violence in our society. What are we doing to cause the boys and men among us to commit these horrible acts? After every situation we hear talk of bullying and isolation, loneliness and insecurity. Do girls also have these feelings? I suspect they do, but they don’t act on them in the same ways.

We impose on our boys expectations that are virtually impossible to accomplish. They are faced with a series of no-win situations. They don’t fit in. They are invisible in the real world. They don’t have a chance socially. What are they to do? They rebel. They fight back against the society that viewed them as losers.

Students: You want to do something that will make a difference? Spend your 17 minutes having lunch with someone who usually eats alone. Spend your 17 minutes being accepting of others who are outside of your world. Spend your 17 minutes thinking about others instead of yourself. That is how you can make a difference. Protesting won’t do it.

Attitudes can’t be the subject of legislation.

Fred Howe

Falmouth