Too easy to get an AR-15
I was curious to see whether I could buy an assault weapon online. I typed in “AR 15 for sale.” I got Grabagun.com and many others. Grabagun is based in Texas. They have over 2500 different assault weapons that come up under the search for AR-15. The procedure to buy one is this: you order the gun you want, pay for it online, pick the dealer you want it sent to and fill out some paperwork. I presume that if you had a friendly dealer lined up that the transaction would be quite easy. Also, I surmise that there must be “dealers” that pay only tacit attention to the details. These are military weapons designed with one thing in mind and that is to kill people. I own several guns, but I see no need for AR-15-type guns. Selling these guns is a recipe for another schoolchildren massacre. Where does this insanity stop?
Bart Chapin,
Arrowsic
Shocked at changes to DaPonte String Quartet
My mother, who died in 2018, introduced me to classical music when I was a child. She spent her last year in Maine, and while she was here I took her to every available DaPonte String Quartet concert. While we had a difficult relationship, I will always cherish the moment we shared at a concert the quartet played in May 2017. The concert began with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and the opening notes were so exquisitely beautiful and deeply heartbreaking that tears immediately welled up in both of our eyes
While I don’t typically select classical music at home, I have long considered the DaPonte String Quartet to be a Maine treasure and have never missed one of their programs if I could help it. I have been so grateful to the quartet’s four, exceptionally talented musicians for having made the unconventional choice to make Maine their home and to make their extraordinary talents readily accessible to Maine people in the broader Midcoast area. In addition to having blessed Maine people with a regular calendar of affordable and exceptional performances, the many concerts I have attended over the years have been held in intimate spaces permitting the audience to both see and hear the quartet’s musicianship. Adding richness to their programs, musicians Jordan, Liva, Forbes and Monke typically take time during their concerts to talk about the pieces and composers chosen and are readily approachable after the performance. While their programs always include traditional composers, in my experience the quartet regularly includes contemporary work by diverse composers.
I was shocked and appalled to read of the letters sent by the Board of the Friends of the DaPonte String Quartet terminating the four members of the quartet from their modestly salaried employment (with “friends” like those…) As the Board was reportedly formed for the specific purpose of handling financing and supporting the quartet’s concerts and programming, I am left yet again wondering what it is about power that seems to invite its abuse. I sincerely hope there is a remedy to be had for this injustice.
Alice Knapp,
Richmond
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