Editor,

I begin this response by asserting that I agree with most of what you, Mr. Dieckman, have written in your letter to the editor.

Our society is, to my mind, pathological. I’ll not repeat those things you attribute to the increase and level of violence that we now experience. But for you to dismiss the very important and persuasive and dominating influence that the NRA has on our body politic – nationally, state and local – is, to my mind, very disingenuous.

To be sure there are many, many abettors to the “arts” of violence and killing.

There has to be limits and common sense controls around the use and ownership of guns.

Just as there are limits to the First Amendment (one cannot/should not utter FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! in a crowded theater), there should be commonsense rules of the Second Amendment as well.

As you write that “… the lack of gun control over gun owners is certainly in keeping with liberal dogma …” is just plain nonsense. I never thought that keeping our school children safe from assault rifles, or any other from of weapon, should be construed as a politically rightist or leftist issue.

However, blocked gun legislation in both the House and Senate can be directly attributed to Republicans, notably Mitch McConnell, who, by the way, are deeply indebted to the NRA.

Aw, there we are. It all comes back to the NRA! Just as I wrote about earlier.

Finally, it is fortuitous that Prosecutor Greg Banks’ Sound Off appears on the same page above your letter. His letter speaks volumes as to where a great deal of violence and pathology is coming from in our time.

God, but I hope the American people do not vote for this clown again. We will lose our direction as a nation entirely.

Start thinking the voices of Germany and Italy in the 1930s. PAX.

Larry Eaton

Oak Harbor