Has anyone been able to keep track of how many gang-related shootings there have been in Monmouth County so far this year?

Our elected officials are quick to give useless, politically correct answers to stopping the violent street gang epidemic, often by wasting your tax dollars on youth sports programs that do nothing to fight gangs.

A 16-year-old high school football star in Asbury Park was fatally shot recently after being released on bail pending trial on charges related to a murder. He’s now the fourth member of the football team to have been killed in a gang-related incident.

Street gangs need to bring in a lot of revenue to stay in business. With drug prohibition, they have a de facto, tax-free monopoly on one of the world’s most lucrative industries.

It’s time to stand up for freedom and personal responsibility by ending the drug war and changing our laws to empower the capitalist freemarket to bankrupt street gangs by licensing legitimate, law-abiding and tax-paying businesses to sell psychoactive substances such as marijuana to adults.
Eric Hafner
Red Bank