NRA and CMR

When Cathy McMorris Rodgers defended her continued acceptance of NRA funding by saying that “what the NRA does is protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns,” Donald Lamp observed that the NRA “routinely denigrates the integrity of gun control advocates and warns of catastrophe if even modest gun reforms are enacted” (“CMR still accepting NRA funds,” April 7). Mr. Lamp never denied CMR’s right to accept funds from the NRA. His clear point was to question her rationale for doing so.

One relevant rebuttal to Mr. Lamp’s letter would have been to argue that the NRA does not routinely denigrate gun control advocates, etc. Instead, Mark Duclos (“Spending is free speech issue,” April 19) implies that Mr. Lamp opposes CMR’s right to accept NRA funding. “Organizations like the NRA and labor unions,” he writes, “give money to candidates who represent their views. It is an expression of free speech.”

It seems to me that Mr. Duclos inadvertently underscores Mr. Lamp’s point: in Rodgers, the NRA has indeed found a candidate who represents its views. And those views, many of us feel, are repellent.

Brian L. Keeling

Spokane