Letters: This isn’t the message of Christmas

The billboards show Christmas lights draped over assault weapons and the words: “Do you hear what I hear?” Gun enthusiasts might find them clever. As a social worker, I find them quite disturbing.

This month is the fourth anniversary of the slaughter of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary. A gun used there looks much like the one on the billboard.

This month, a barely healed wound that South Carolina suffered 18 months ago was reopened during Dylann Roof’s trial: Family members of the victims at Mother Emmanuel Church had to see photos of their slaughtered loved ones. We heard Roof’s chilling words about white supremacy and how he carried out his attack, using a gun purchased in the Midlands.

South Carolina still has one of the highest rates of women killed by men; 60 percent of these murders were carried out using guns.

I am tired of this bloodshed. The sign asks, “Do you hear what I hear?” My reply: I hear the cries of grieving survivors — parents of the Sandy Hook children, families of the Mother Emanuel nine and children of mothers killed by their abusers.

What an abysmal Christmas message.