Treason accusation is irresponsible
Re: David Cook’s column (Aug. 8). For every person publicizing armed attendance at a film, thousands more quietly and lawfully carry weapons they are competent to use. You decry their having weapons in churches, schools and theaters. One such citizen could have prevented or minimized the loss of lives at Virginia Tech, both mass shootings in Colorado, and the slaughter of helpless Amish girls in Pennsylvania.
I am unwilling to gamble that your statistics will protect my family. Nor can police, who investigate and prosecute assailants after the fact. That my weapon makes my family or others threatened with death safe is not, as you charge, a lie.
Angels of our better nature might survive in a utopia you apparently yearn for. That world does not exist. The lawless will always have deadly weapons, even if their ownership were unconditionally outlawed. Most lawfully armed citizens understand this and realize that we must try to live peacefully, while responding swiftly to deadly threats if we must.
The NRA is not perfect, but it serves as a strong voice supporting citizens’ rights to protect themselves, especially when gun-control forces erupt after every senseless tragedy. To accuse it of treason is irresponsible in the extreme.
GEORGE DERRYBERRY