Weapons ban would not help
1/30/2013In response to your Jan. 19 editorial “Fight to win:” The 1994 so-called ban on assault weapons accomplished nothing other than to drive up prices of the products that were banned. Reinstating the ban would have the same result.
Universal background checks fall into the same category. They’re in effect in some areas, and those places have seen none of the results that were promised.
National Rifle Association members and other gun-right supporters are no more “fanatical,” to use your word, about the Second Amendment than you are about the First.
JAMES DUNMYER
Temperance
NRA exec’s views lead him to quit
The NRA publishes magazines every month that feature new firearms, people who defended themselves with a gun, beautiful animals that members killed with a gun, and upcoming gun shows.
I wonder whether the NRA will publicize the three shootings that happened in Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina on Jan. 19, at NRA-sanctioned gun shows.
I’m sorry to say, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and his bizarre views have caused me to quit the NRA after 30 years.
VAUGHN MILLER
Swanton
Schools can’t afford guards
The NRA wants all schools to have armed guards to increase safety from a threat it helped to create. Most school districts, especially poorer ones, struggle to raise enough money to pay for qualified teachers, let alone armed guards.
To come up with the funds to pay for these guards, taxes would have to be raised on residents who can ill afford to pay more taxes. That includes NRA members.
Armed guards in schools make as much sense as the NRA’s fight against legislation that would regulate the sale of combat-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and gun show weapons trafficking.
MATT WELKER
Suzanne Drive
Armed staff no match for shooter
Armed guards and teachers, janitors, and other school staff who have concealed-carry handgun licenses will not deter a suicidal shooter on a rampage.
These people likely would be outgunned and provide a target for return fire by someone who is planning to die. A shootout in a public setting might sound romantic to concealed-carry holders with a false sense of bravado and a savior complex.
In reality, they would flee or play dead, thinking of their loved ones like every other victim of America’s infatuation with violence.
SALLY KELLER
Sabra Road