Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

July 26, 2012

Letters to the editor, July 26, 2012
More gun limits won't make world safer

The echoes of the gunshots in Aurora, Colo., had barely quieted before the gun-control crowd began its predictable call for more gun laws, banning "assault weapons" and large magazines, and more "reasonable" gun laws. I think New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was first.

If any of those pipe dreams come to fruition, it will make good theater but little good will come of it.

With the Volstead Act in 1919, we tried to outlaw alcoholic beverages. We all know how well Prohibition worked out. (One of my most prized possessions is the bottle capper that my grandfather utilized to put up homebrew beer.)

We have tried over the years to control illegal drugs and, if anything, they are more easily obtainable than ever. Sometimes I suspect that the only good to come out of the "war on drugs" is that it keeps a lot of law enforcement people employed.

We can't even come close to keeping human beings from coming into our country illegally.

So why do the gun-control people think that chasing down firearms will produce any different result?

If by some work of magic, all guns were eliminated from Earth by a poof of fairy dust, there are plenty of smart folks with lathes and milling machines who would shortly turn to building them down cellar, just the same way my grandfather made beer during the days of Prohibition.

I think that personal firearms are more often a force for good than evil, although I realize that I will never convince some of my friends of that. The genie is out of the bottle, and it won't be put back in.

Norman B. Blake, West Baldwin 

Gripe about 'diatribes' doesn't jibe with reality 

As I read F. Kingston Berlew's Another View ("Too many right-wing diatribes appear on Commentary page," July 12), I found myself wondering if he reads the same Press Herald as I do.

He states that this paper should not fill your Commentary page with "right-wing diatribes" without including Democratic or left-wing commentaries on the same page.

Mr. Berlew further states that the Commentary page needs to be "liberated" (oh, please) from overwhelming right-wing nonsense. Again, does he read the same paper that I read?

I believe that the Press Herald offers a fair balance of different opinions, though at times I think they lean left. Go figure.

Joe Burke, Limerick 

Onus is all on lawmakers to resolve tax-break issue 

In speaking about the failed legislative attempts to resolve the tax-break extensions beyond the current year, Sen. Olympia Snowe lamented on public radio, "We should have fixed that last year," or words to that effect.

Neither I nor my fellow citizens are numbered among that cohort of "We" to whom she refers, but she and her fellow Republican and junior colleague are. My questions to both venerable senators are: "Why didn't you, Senator? Why haven't you since? Why don't you fix it now?"

With what little remaining respect is due, I suggest that we citizens are fully aware of the problem. What is lacking is the effort from those who could resolve the issue to do so!

Charles C. Cate, Ogunquit

WW II vet voices thanks for 'unforgettable' D.C. trip 

An unforgettable free trip is sponsored by Honor Flights New England.

This trip is for World War II veterans. Twenty-two of us were flown out of Manchester, N.H., on April 22 to Baltimore, where we boarded a luxury bus to Washington, D.C. We were escorted to the airport by two police cruisers and 20 Patriot cyclists. It was an awesome sight.

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