Letters for June 8, 2022
Not much of a threat
After I read Bob Strong’s letter, (May 27) I had to do some research. I had never heard of the “Cloward-Piven Strategy,” written 56 years ago. Strong appears to have many “facts.” I did not know that many major Democrat-controlled cities are being destroyed today. And I had to look up the meaning of transmorgrify. My dictionary informs me the word means, “to change as if by magic.” Don’t think that is much of a threat.
I am a Democrat because I am an environmentalist. And I don’t think I have any pernicious purposes.
I am simply a law-abiding great-grandmother. Three children, no drug users, all educated and financially successful.
Does Strong believe that Joe Biden created: 1) War in Ukraine; 2) COVID-19; 3) Militant mobs; and 4) collapse of the “system”?
However, on another note we can all have a good laugh as we read recently of Trump’s appearance at the NRA convention. Though personal firearms are allowed at the convention, the NRA said guns would not be permitted during the sessions featuring Trump because of Secret Service security protocols.
Strong uses big words well, and as a Democrat I will have to look out for being subverted to becoming “ruinous, highly hurtful, evil or wicked.”
Janet Callen
Coeur d’Alene
NRA
How did we reach the state of affairs where a small group (the NRA) whose membership totals 5 million under the most optimistic of estimates, can dictate our laws, put its words into the mouths of our politicians, and stymie even the most common-sense laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals and people who have threatened others with harm? What has happened to the moral outrage we should all feel when innocent lives are taken? Already damage control has swung into full gear at the headquarters of the NRA and soon we’ll hear numerous speeches by all the earnest politicians it has bought and paid for, and read letters to the editor in our local paper from the usual suspects. They will blame everyone and everything but themselves.
When a petulant child repeatedly makes enormous messes and then expects others around him to clean up, we call out that behavior for what it is. We recognize the actions of a spoiled child, one who has no sense of self-responsibility, and has never been called to account. Isn’t it heartbreaking that our nation is in thrall to the organizational equivalent of a spoiled brat? A truly ethical and responsible NRA would pay for the funeral expenses of every child killed in a school by a hand gun or assault weapon from this date going forward, and for enhanced mental health treatment. It has demonstrated moral cowardice for decades. Isn’t it time to change?
Greg Presley
Spokane
School shootings in Texas
I was appalled that 19 children and two adults were killed by an obviously deranged young man down in Uvalde, Texas. That the young man was mentally disturbed is evident because nobody in their right mind would kill a bunch of fourth-graders for any reason.
Even before the blood was dry the calls for more gun control began and once more the push to limit or ban certain types of firearms started up once more. But we have to remember one simple fact, it’s not the guns that committed this crime, it was a person that killed all of these people.
In this country we have a constitutionally guaranteed right to have firearms for protection, hunting and other pursuits, but using tragedies such as this to try and take away our rights is even more evil than shooting down a bunch of children.
An AR-15 is not a military weapon, never has been nor ever will be. It is a civilian weapon chambered usually in a very small and not very powerful caliber. The bullet in a 5.56/.223 round is only 15 grains heavier than a .22 long rifle round which is one of the most popular rounds in America.
All we have to do is look at Ukraine to see why it is important for our citizens to be armed as well as they can be armed. Stop trying to ban the AR-15 and find a way to stop people from committing these types of crimes.
Larry Smith
Post Falls
GOP lawmakers have no shame
In the aftermath of the shooting of 19 children in Uvalde, Texas, watching GOP politicians’ reaction to the mass murder is almost as sickening as what occurred at Robb Elementary School. Gov. Greg Abbott spouts meaningless words of condolence while being a staunch defender of gun rights. He signed a wide-ranging state law in 2021 that allows Texans to carry handguns without licenses. How do Abbott and all the other anti-gun control lawmakers sleep at night, knowing they facilitated Tuesday’s massacre? Then there’s Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, who have received millions of dollars in donations from the NRA. Was it worth it, taking that blood money?
Dan Keenan
Spokane