Big Pharma should clean up its act
In his three-column expo of runaway drug prices, Clif Cleaveland failed to mention phenomena that might be a final cure. Too much profit invited competition, and now there are plenty of potential competitors in the world cable of producing the overpriced items. Furthermore, unreasonable laws are next to impossible to enforce. For example, bootlegging whisky was a bonanza during Prohibition days, and on blue law Sundays, underage teens simply had to ask a policeman for directions to the nearest outlet for a case of beer.
Responsible businesses supplying safe black market medicines will come about if the government-protected pharmaceutical industry doesn’t clean up its act.
James O.B. Wright
Sequatchie, Tenn.
Pit bulls grossly misunderstood
In reply to the recent letter about pit bulls: I pity her or anyone else who has such a attitude. All pit bulls are not ferocious. If they have been in loving homes and given a chance, they are not any different from a poodle. I know of pits that are very loving and live in homes with other dogs. They play with the other dogs in the same family and like to snuggle in bed.
My question is “Do you like to see people gunned down for no reason?” Almost every day this happens and these “humans” usually receive no more than a minimum slap on the hand and are right back out there doing the same thing. They have no more compassion for anyone, including women and children. Perhaps you might take up this cause; I hope you do not own any animals. This would indeed be cruelty.
Virginia Carr
Person, not gun, is the murderer
This letter is not for social engineers, Hillary Clinton voters or other deluded Americans. A man here in Rhea County in a fit of carnal rage ran over and killed another man who disagreed with him. In a fit of rage, a man in McMinn County killed his fellow employees.
It was not the gun nor the car, but the untempered individuals who were responsible for the deaths. Gun control is a deliberate or foolish attempt to solve an age-old problem. The Ten Commandments plainly state that we are not to murder another, and the penalty is death. These simple laws of God kept our nation from foolishness for nearly 400 years. The Bill of Rights is the key to our liberty, and it shall not be abrogated. Period.
June Griffin
Dayton, Tenn.
Anti-gun crowd should check facts
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s “Crime in the United States,” 15,696 murders were committed last year, an increase of about 10 percent over 2014. While many know the murder rate has been going up since the current president’s administration has taken control, the blame cannot be placed solely on lack of federal leadership on crime.
The highest increases have come in the urban blighted areas, controlled by Democrat professional politicians for many decades. The more “sensible gun control,” the higher the murder rate. Taking away honest citizens’ rights to acquire whatever they determine is necessary and replace it with what politicians will “allow” does not stop any crime. It just protects the criminals.
The anti-gun crowd seldom has any knowledge of or definition for “assault” weapons. Murders by rifles of any kind in 2015 continued to go down as AR-15 ownership went up. Per the FBI, the 252 murders by rifles during 2015 were less than murders by knives, blunt objects (like clubs and hammers) and personal weapons (such as hands, fists, and feet). Gangs use handguns!
Jim Hill
Harrison