Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992 TAG: 9202240197
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GLAD NRA MAN LOOKS OUT FOR CITIZENS
I'M GLAD that Virginia has such a person as Charles Cunningham looking out for the citizens of this state (news story, "The NRA's legislative hit man," Feb. 16). Otherwise, we too would be slaves to the narrow-minded ways of the gun-control fanatics.These highly educated idiots think that more laws will solve everything. We have laws on top of laws now, and look at the crime rate! New York City and Washington, D.C., have the toughest gun laws in the country, but that hasn't done anything for their crime problems.
You don't put a ban on cars because drunken drivers are killing hundreds of people each year; you deal with the drivers. The same goes for the killings with guns.
Whatever happened to 20 years at hard labor? Now, it's 12 months at the "resort" of your choosing, and only on weekends if it's too much trouble to be there all week.
Our death penalty used to mean death. Now, it's stay on death row for 15 years while you write your books and collect your Social Security until you get paroled.
Some time back, gun-control fools were screaming their heads off about the "cop-killer Teflon bullets" and wanted a ban on these too. So far, not one police officer has been killed in the line of duty with these bullets. Most police officers who are killed die at the hands of career criminals.
If people at the capitol are afraid of the National Rifle Association, it's because they have 80,000 members in Virginia and about 2 million members across this country. These are citizens telling the government in a peaceful manner, and backing it up with votes, what their wishes are. If that is wrong, maybe these fanatics should pass a law saying you can't voice your opinion. RODNEY F. METHENY VINTON