The Secret Service is doing background checks on the reporters covering the Democratic and Republican national conventions this summer.

Well, it appears that this credentialing is not liked by the media. They are having a hissy fit about it and think it’s entirely unnecessary. They are even worried that some reporter might be denied access because of previous arrests, etc.

It would seem to me that now that the shoe is on the other foot, it is beginning to feel a bit too tight. Now the media has a taste of what gun owners have been going through these many years.

It seems that as long as the First Amendment was not being assaulted – as is the Second Amendment – all was OK. However, they are most unhappy to learn that their precious First Amendment rights might be in jeopardy as well.

Deal with it, media. Now you know why we gun owners have long been the target by government and the media. And we remind you that perhaps it’s time you learned your lesson.

Now the Bloomberg petition to require much more stringent gun-sale background checks has more meaning, doesn’t it? Maybe someday reporters will have to jump through more hoops just to get a story.

After all, as Jeff Kent, director of the Senate Press Photographers Gallery, said about background checks by the Secret Service, “It is better safe than sorry, and let’s be secure.” Does that sound like the media cry of “If background checks save one life, they are worth it”?

The hypocrisy of the media would be laughable if it were not so sad.

George A. Fogg

North Yarmouth