Re: “NRA, gun control advocates say fight far from over” (TNT, 5-5).

The NRA leaders and its loyal members convene are gearing up for the 2014 midterms. They have reason to care about these critical elections. Just last month a bill was defeated in Congress that would have expanded background checks on guns sales. If groups in favor of gun control put resources and money into campaigns for people who are going to support their cause, it might be problematic for the NRA.

Jim Porter, the incoming NRA president, has realized this and it is guaranteeing that it will …

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Yet another writer defends uncontrolled access to guns in America (letter, 5-9), reiterating the argument that we should “put the bad guy in jail” instead of making new laws that would put “good people” in jail.

I presume he means those good people jailed for selling guns without vetting the purchaser. Gun owners should be able to sell guns to anyone they please without being encumbered by concerns that the purchaser is a raving lunatic bent on visiting death upon, say, kids in the local elementary school.

This is absurd. The writer and the NRA rant about enforcing existing …

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The News Tribune’s view that our senators ignored the will of the American people in rejecting recent gun legislation (editorial, 4-19) is the opinion of a few editorial writers – an opinion that reaches thousands of people. Our newspaper, along with most papers in the country, expressed the same anti-gun opinions along with publishing numerous articles supporting their views in disproportion with pro-gun articles.

The media support for further gun legislation allied with President Obama and his government was a massive effort to influence public opinion and polls which would undoubtedly and unfairly bias polls our newspapers cite as …

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The failure of the Senate to pass the background checks bill is another example of a Congress that is increasingly unresponsive to the will of most Americans. It matters little that a majority of Americans favored strengthening of federal background checks. The opinion of a private gun club, the NRA, is more important to them.

The NRA seems to have as much power as many government agencies, if not more, and it is not accountable to American citizens. Other examples of congressional unwillingness to act affect consumer protection and public safety. Consider the following examples:

• Many senators and representatives …

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Re: “Senators ignore American public on background checks” (editorial, 4-19).

I understand that this is an editorial piece by The New Tribune editorial board, but you give no reason why the senators would reject this legislation other than insinuating, with the associated cartoon, that the NRA bought them out.

Why don’t you report that the records required during the sale of the firearm can be used to create a gun registry? While the bill currently makes this illegal, these records (form 4473) are required to be kept for 20 years by the seller. Another bill could simply remove the …

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Re: “Senate rejects background checks, other gun measures” (TNT, 4-18).

It’s a culture war: the gun lobby vs. almost 90 percent of Americans who want background checks. The NRA. and its allies have built a culture of the heroic, gun-wielding American who might have brandished a gun at Aurora, Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook Elementary School and brought down the bad guys.

Apparently four Democratic senators facing re-election in gun-friendly states caved. If those senators had the courage of teachers at Sandy Hook they could return to their states to explain, “We need a culture of responsible gun ownership, …

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Re: “Movement to hinder gun rules, research a quiet one” (TNT, 4-3).

How many of us want to slide back into complacency about deaths caused by guns in our country? If you would like to see a turnaround, now is the time to act.

This article puts us on alert all the more as far as the obstacles to getting meaningful legislation passed. The negligence and/or greed of many members of Congress in caving in to the gun lobby through the years is obvious in reading the article.

The incidence of bloodshed not only in our schools but other …

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Just imagine what would have happened at that Auburn sports tavern if guns had not been present.

First of all, three people probably would not have died so quickly. Yes, there still would have been a brawl and we would probably see some wounded, perhaps with a knife, but no one would have died as quickly as these three did with a fourth one fighting for his life.

Brawls like this happen everywhere, but only in America is the gun as readily available to do the quick kill. And now the NRA is advocating at least one armed officer in …

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