NRA vs. children

While flipping through a National Rifleman magazine in the mid-1990s, I was taken aback when I came across an editorial railing against pediatricians and family physicians who would ask parents if they kept their firearms locked away to prevent their children from accessing them and thus harming themselves or others. The National Rifle Association implored parents to report any physician who did so to some authority for some type of retribution.

I couldn’t find the aforementioned article online. But you can verify the NRA’s attacks on the medical community by searching online for “Docs vs. Glocks” or go to the American College of Physicians website at www.acponline.org and type “NRA” in their search bar.

Perhaps, you too, will find the actions of this very powerful organization somewhat troubling, especially in light of the fact that guns are now the leading cause of death for American children.

We only know this sad statistic because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finally, once again, able to research the impact of gun injuries and deaths in our country. Yes, due to pressure from the NRA, Congress chose to defund the CDC’s firearms research in 1997 (go to cnn.com/health and search “NRA/Walensky”).

My question is this: The NRA supports “responsible” use of firearms. So why would the NRA denounce doctors who talk to parents about keeping their guns and rifles under lock and key? And if the NRA is all about “gun safety,” why would it object to the CDC compiling data that might reduce gun injuries and deaths?

Jennifer Artley

Grangeville

Pattern repeats itself

Here we go again: Each time there is an unfortunate shooting by some sicko, the Democrats jump on it with a battle cry for more gun laws.

We have about 60,000 gun laws and regulations.

They only want a total ban and confiscation. That won’t happen in this country.

Time and time again, Congress has been told schools can be made safe by having single-point entry, automatic lockdown, metal detectors, armed officers at each school and controlled access perimeters around the schools.

Most schools in Europe are designed this way.

The Democrats have billions of our dollars to give to the losing effort in the Ukraine, but not one dime for school security.

School shootings are too good for their anti-gun campaign to stop them. Just think of the school shootings and the aftermath: same rhetoric and same results.

It is lack of security, mental health screening and idiots who are the real problems.

Jack Marshall

Lewiston

More doublespeak

The skatbag Texas governor is the epitome of GOPer Nazi doublespeak and hypocrisy...

Following the Uvalde massacre, he lamented gun violence and said, “We must do better at addressing mental health issues.”

Really?

Then how come the governor and his legislative goons slashed $250 million from ... mental health services in the last two years? Texas has the worst record in the country for providing access to mental health care for the needy. It also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country.

How come the governor got pissed when he learned Californians had more guns than Texans in ’06 and exhorted them to “buy more,” which they did, more than 1 million more that year?

How come the Lone Star State has some of the loosest gun laws in the country and has had hundreds of mass shootings in the last eight years?

The U.S. outguns every other country in the world, some 450 million firearms nationwide, enough for every man, woman and child with a bunch left over. Guns now kill more young children each year than anything else. We lead the world in gun violence, particularly in mass shootings, which now exceed 200 per year.

Guns are big business and big business makes sure it keeps on rolling. The recent Georgia candidate for governor, Kandiss Taylor, had this campaign slogan: “Jesus, Guns, Babies.”

It shows the position of the Republican fascists and their allies, the white Christian nationalists. ...

Are we really going to accept that?

Mike Epstein

Clarkston

Keep it up

I would like to compliment the Lewiston Tribune for its continued excellence as a newspaper.

I have lived in Bozeman, Mont., for the last 50 years and our local paper has declined badly as a news source, especially state and local news, including school sports. You have kept up the best standards of what a newspaper should be. Keep up the good work.

Jerry Calvert

Bozeman, Mont.