Editor, The Herald:

Ordinarily I wouldn't respond to a letter as, in my opinion, irrational and ill-informed as the one entitled “Don't lose rational focus on guns” in your August 1st edition, but this one really goes too far.

The writer deplores Michael Bloomberg, whom he calls Gov. Bloomberg, of New York. Mr. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City, not the governor of the state of New York. Mr. Bloomberg is accused by your correspondent of “using a national tragedy to justify his words of treason.” He should be indicted, convicted, and dismissed from office (an office he does not hold, so that should be pretty difficult).

Mr. Bloomberg's offense? After the movie theater massacre in Colorado, Bloomberg said that words of sympathy from the presidential candidates for the victims and their families were fine, but he wanted to know what they were going to do about it. Yes, a blatantly unconstitutional remark.

The letter then goes on to enumerate other causes of death in the United States, and concludes that we should just put up with gun violence because people are killed in car crashes, fall off ladders, and die in hospitals. It misses the point that what he refers to are accidents, and the Colorado shootings were no accident, but a deliberate act of murder made easier for the perpetrator because of the easy availability of semiautomatic weapons and multi-round clips.

A rational focus on guns would seem to be that no hunter or homeowner needs a semiautomatic rifle that can fire 100 rounds without reloading. The purpose of such a weapon is the killing of large numbers of people, plain and simple. No reasonable right would be abrogated if the sale of such weapons were simply monitored and controlled, if not outright banned. But the unreasoning letter, a dupe, in my opinion, of the firearms manufacturers, would see even the most mild restrictions on any firearm as unconstitutonal. The NRA in its wisdom has even managed to successfully crusade for the right of people on the terrorist watch list to buy whatever guns they desire.

The tide of public opinion will soon turn against such nonsense. There must be some controls on who purchases such weapons, otherwise we can expect more mass murder.

Oh, and one final note: The gasoline bombs used in WW2 by partisans against tanks are Molotov Cocktails (named after their inventor), not “Malakoff” as the letter would have it.

Bill Shear

Farmville