Letters for March 15, 2018

Appearances

Many people in support of the National Rifle Association have said: “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Whether this is true or not, being more a matter of philosophy, it can’t be denied that this statement addresses how people handle guns rather than guns being inherently evil. Also, the Second Amendment of the US Constitution states, “A well regulated Militia . . .” not “well-regulated arms.” This, again, seems to point toward overseeing who owns guns and not the guns themselves. And therefore, is eliminating bump-stocks, AR-15s, or high-capacity magazines going in the wrong direction?

If it’s people that is the problem when it comes to gun ownership, I can’t understand why the NRA wouldn’t support more thorough background checks and raising the age limit for qualification of gun ownership. If gun ownership is the badge of patriotism the NRA claims it is, why allow people who exhibit extreme behavior or who have been in and out of mental care for years to own guns? Doesn’t this make gun ownership look ’evil’ when it is not?

However, from their recent statements, the impression is that the NRA believes that the killing of children is justifiable to maintain their position of insisting upon little or no gun ownership regulation. There’s no way the NRA can deny this. Who looks evil now? In fact, the NRA is in favor of adding even more guns to society by arming teachers and school security with greater firepower. Who does the NRA really represent? From appearances, the National Rifle Association seems less interested in the Second Amendment and more interested in simply selling guns.

Michael Seidl

Reno

The simple way

New Rules: No guns shall be made that shoot more than six bullets at a time. No dealers may carry in their stores guns shooting more than six bullets. Regular inspections. First offense a fine, second offense jail, third offense out of business forever.

No more AK-15s or similar guns, all confiscated, dismantled, melted, buried. No more than six guns per household that has no mental illness because that’s stockpiling and a potential killer.

Second Amerndment repealed. This is 2018. Times have changed since the 1700s.

All of the above pertains to rifles as well.

Helen Howe

Reno

Guns, guns, everywhere

Re “Cockamamie legal theories” (Let Freedom Ring, Jan. 25):

Cliven Bundy was illegally grazing cattle on public land for decades. That is a fact. He refused to pay the grazing fees that all ranchers must pay to run their cattle on federally managed land. That the federal prosecutors’ incompetence led to the dismissal of the case against Cliven Bundy does not mean he was not guilty of whatever he was charged with, nor does it change the fact that he was illegally running his cows on federal land.

Regarding guns, the excessive weaponization of law enforcement officers—federal, state, and local—is a response to the flood of guns in America. We can blame the NRA (i.e. the gun manufacturers lobby) for pushing for guns, guns, everywhere, and Republican politicians for allowing this to happen.

Finally, Roy Finecum is dead because, after jumping out of the vehicle at a police road block, he started to reach into his coat for a pistol. That’s never a good idea when you’re surrounded by cops.

Michael Powell

Reno

Drip, drip, drip

During a trip to Great Basin in 2015 when a friend and I climbed Wheeler Peak, we also toured Lehman Caves. The guide said that normally there would be drippage from the ceiling to look out for, but that it had ceased due to groundwater so depleted after prolonged drought.

It puts the lie to the myth perpetuated by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) that surplus groundwater exists in northeastern Nevada that may be tapped without any environmental consequences. Las Vegas ratepayers should be as aroused as citizens in the Snake Valley fighting SNWA’s pipeline because it is a waste of billions of dollars for an attempted diversion from a basin where no surfeit of water exists.

Bill Stremmel

Pahrump