Re “Walkout: City students join Wednesday’s national demonstration for tougher gun laws on one-month anniversary of Florida high school massacre,” Free Press March 15-17 edition:

The school shooting in Florida is an overwhelming event. Unfortunately, it has become our “normal.”

We, as a society, are looking to push the blame on something or someone. We’re blaming everyone except ourselves.

We say they took prayer out of school, but there’s a moment of silence. We say they took God out of school, but what about the people who confess to be Christians?

We continue to point the finger at the gun makers. Don’t get me wrong: I think the age should be 21 to buy an assault rifle.

But there’s life and death in the tongue way before any notion of getting a gun. We have a problem accepting people who are not like ourselves. We’ve stripped men of their history. We’re raised a nation of sociopaths who have no regard for their fellow man.

The unseen world is more powerful than the seen world. We need to teach and apply the fruit of one spirit — love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

How do we kill an idea? We kill an old idea with a new idea.

CLIFFTON O. WILLIAMS JR.

Richmond