To the Editor:
Re “Obama to Expand Gun Sale Checks” (front page, Jan. 5):
I’m always surprised by how angry gun lovers sound. Even if we eventually manage to pass gun registration laws and ban the guns of war, they’ll still have access to more guns, more easily than in any other first-world country.
We have many more gun murders each year than all these countries. Why do we need so many more guns than anywhere else? Why is more, more, more never enough?
Now, concealed carry isn’t enough, so we need open carry—to schools, to bars, everywhere.
Instead of mindlessly repeating that America is the greatest country on earth, maybe it’s time to learn something from other countries for a change.
ROBERT E. DAVIDSON
New York
Note from KBJ: Note the manipulative rhetoric: "angry gun lovers." First, anger can be righteous. It's called indignation. If you threaten or violate my rights, I will be indignant. The letter writer does nothing to show that the anger he detects is not righteous. Second, one does not have to "love" guns in order to believe that one has a legal and moral right to own and possess them. If one side "loves" guns, then, by parity of reasoning, the other side must "hate" them. Do you hate guns, Mr Davidson? Third, what are "guns of war," and what does this have to do with lawful gun ownership for purposes of self-defense, defense of others, hunting, and so on? Fourth, we Americans do not want to be like other countries. These other countries have given the world genocide, among other atrocities. The United States is the land of individual liberty. We have nothing to learn from other countries. They have much to learn from us.
