In or about 1961, as a member of Lewiston High School’s debating team, I took part in a tournament at Dartmouth College.
We were driving home after the event. I was sitting in the back seat of our teacher’s car when a bullet entered a side window and left through the rear windscreen passing by my head.
A youth who had absconded from a young offenders’ institution had stolen two high-powered rifles and was sitting on the guard rail of the highway taking pot shots at passing vehicles.
We were very lucky; shocked, but no one was injured.
Aged now 78, looking back at this incident, it is profoundly depressing how little seems to have changed.
There were then and appear to remain now questions about mental health provision and more particularly about gun control.
Does anyone actually want to have these discussions?
Why on earth should anyone in a civilian population need assault weapons?
I hope something positive may emerge from recent terrible events, but in the meantime I can only send condolences to those affected.
Suzanne Tarlin, London, United Kingdom
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