The church shooting in Colorado Springs on Sunday had a vastly different ending than the Westroads Mall slayings. The killer was stopped immediately by someone on scene. By a volunteer with a concealed carry permit who decided she was willing to help protect “the flock.”

If this had happened in Nebraska, there would have been many more dead, as state law would have forced this brave woman to leave her firearm in the car or at home. This is the same law, mind you, that kept legal concealed carry permit holders from having their firearms at Von Maur.

Gun-free zones don’t work. The only people who are made more safe are the killers.

Allen Forkner, Omaha

Keeping quiet isn’t answer

In order to make sense of the senseless random act of violence by the Omaha shooter, we point fingers of blame at parents, schools, peers, mental health providers, and now the media (“Shooter shouldn’t be named,” letter, Dec. 8).

Will shooting the messenger (the media) prevent another “copycat” tragedy? It is simplistic to think an effective solution is to silence the media from revealing the identity of the perpetrator of this abominable act.

With the infinite variety of communication sources today — i.e., the Internet, texting, YouTube, cable and satellite, not to mention print and broadcast — it is virtually impossible to silence details of such a public event. In this digital age, personal information on the shooter would get out instantly anyway, perchance laced with errors and speculation from unreliable sources. The shooter would still be “famous.”

To single out the broadcast and print media is not the solution. It is time for serious and rational dialogue among all communication sources and the public to search for answers to this critical social issue.

Leta Powell Drake, Lincoln

Omaha killer won’t be famous

I was appalled to hear two radio announcers agreeing with the statement in the Westroads Mall shooter’s suicide letter that the boy would be famous. The broadcasters used Charles Starkweather as an example of how famous the boy’s name could remain throughout time. Webster’s Dictionary describes famous as: well known, excellent, celebrated, distinguished, eminent, famed, illustrious, noted, pre-eminent, prominent and renowned.

I don’t think that the boy who murdered and wounded all those people fits the above description very well. To me, the definition of infamous sounds more fitting, It is defined as: Having a bad reputation, notorious, shocking or disgraceful.

I can’t even remember the names of the people who did the Columbine shootings or the person who did the Virginia Tech shootings. Unless the news media brings up the names of the murderers, I feel that most of the population remember the incidents, not who did them.

This boy did not “go out in style.” He went out a murderer who killed innocent unarmed people and then committed suicide.

I’m sure this boy had his good qualities at one time, and I feel very sorry for the families and friends of both the victims and this boy, but I am frustrated that any news media would put out the image that this kid will be famous and remembered in the future. This puts out a terrible message to other troubled kids who may desperately want to feel like they can be famous.

The boy should be made to appear as he ended up: a criminal who murdered eight innocent people and ruined several families’ lives, for no other purpose than self-glory.

David West, Lincoln

No reason to show video

I am disgusted by how much publicity this shooter is getting and the media is allowing him to have. This includes the most recent showing of the video surveillance footage on the Web site.

Why give this guy the time of day? His name should never have been mentioned, his picture never shown, a video of him going into the store never released. Are we to encourage other people to become “famous” in this manner? The media is instrumental in making sure the loved ones lost are the people to be placed upon a pedestal instead of this man who has destroyed people’s lives.

If we want a peek into the terror the employees, patrons and families felt that day, we probably don’t have to look too far to find someone who knows someone who knows someone that was a victim that day. If you want a good horror movie, go rent one. These other videos belong locked away in a vault somewhere so they don’t get shown to others who may think this is the way to finally make a name for themselves.

Teri Feit, Lincoln

Great job, emergency workers

The world became much smaller last Wednesday, when a depressed young man felt he had no alternative but to gun down innocent people at Von Maur. It’s hard to imagine how out of touch and desperate Robert Hawkins must have been.

My husband and I decided to go to Omaha and shop at Westroads on Wednesday, though I hadn’t been there for decades. We wanted to do a little Christmas shopping, and I wanted my husband to use a gift card I had given him for his birthday — to Von Maur.

Before leaving for Omaha, we ran a few errands around Lincoln. I realized I’d forgotten the gift card, so we ran home to pick it up and search for an Omaha address we needed. We headed to Westroads half an hour later than we had intended.

We thank God for that. Backed up in traffic going into the Westroads parking lot, we wondered if there had been an accident. Suddenly there were sirens and patrol and emergency vehicles on all sides of the two lanes of traffic, navigating between vehicles that could barely move, drivers of speeding private vehicles donned badges on their shirts. We turned on the radio and instantly became aware of the situation.

I want people to know what a tremendous job the emergency personnel did in maneuvering through the traffic, and then organizing and redirecting the traffic, getting us out of harm’s way in an incredibly efficient and rapid manner. These men and women had a horrendous job to do at the mall; they certainly deserve our praise.

Mary J. Linke, Lincoln