This letter is in response to Dennis Levinson’s recent Your Turn guest column attacking the National Rifle Association (NRA) as being a terrorist organization responsible for the Newtown, Conn., massacre.
I am an NRA member, but not a gun owner. I believe every lawful American has the God-given, not government-given, right to own a gun(s).
I also believe that Newtown is an indication of a mental health problem, not a gun control problem.
In 2010 the Connecticut Legislature, under intense pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected passing a law that may have taken (shooter) Adam Lanza off the streets. The reason the law was rejected: the law might have denied someone like Mr. Lanza his “right to privacy.”
This nation has thousands of laws to protect innocents from murder. If those laws did nothing to protect the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, what impact would gun control laws have had? If America were disarmed, how would that afford Americans greater protection?
I do not know why Mr. Levinson invoked Sept. 11, 2001, as proof that somehow the Transportation Security Administration’s enforcement procedures have prevented deadly weapons on aircraft.
Some of those procedures were in effect long before Sept. 11. In the wake of Sept. 11, airline pilots were allowed to be armed after passing federal qualifications — for good reason.
No politician has the right to infringe on my Second Amendment rights. That politician takes an oath of office to uphold the rule of law, the Constitution being the basis of all laws of this nation, whether or not that politician agrees with the Constitution.
After all, Mr. Levinson has every right to speak out against the Constitution. I would never infringe on Mr. Levinson’s First Amendment rights. As such, I would not expect Mr. Levinson to infringe on my Second Amendment rights.
I would hope that Mr. Levinson, in his retirement, might examine the mental health laws in our nation, laws that have been weakened by political correctness. Bottom line, I will fight hard to prevent my Second Amendment rights from being denied by a few homicidal maniacs.
John Barbaro
Jackson