Letters to the Editor: Money is the only way to curb the powerful gun lobby

To the editor: The 2nd Amendment fanatic's thinking is as dense as a diamond and has the depth of a spoon, so much so that something Freudian must be involved with it.

The 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., affected me so strongly that I only imagined its effect on the nation would have been enough to put an end to this debate once and for all.

Since that tragedy, occurring 11 days before Christmas, I have resolved to send a donation to the Sandy Hook Promise foundation every time I write a letter like this, because I know now that a financial response is the only way to deal with a gun lobby that would seem to have us and our elected officials believe, as in some bad cowboy or war movie, that a “winner” in a violent exchange is “the good guy.” Yet politicians often care more about placating gun hobbyists than even the most innocent of lives.

I am encouraged that the sheriff of Shasta County, who raised concerns about an original draft of the county board of supervisors’ resolution to defend gun rights, seems to know that the statistics in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reporting Program are more than just numbers.

Ronald Webster, Long Beach

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Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones manages his family’s gun store. Because of that, he should have recused himself from voting on his performative resolution purporting to defend the 2nd Amendment. At the very least.

Thomas Bliss, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.