Letters to the Editor for April 26, 2013

Where will next attack take place?

Sometimes Bob Thomas gets it right, even when he doesn’t have the facts, “Lack of Moral Compass Led to Boston Disaster” on April 18. His rantings are well known to regular readers of his column. Even though there was no indication that the Boston bombers had any connection to Islam when Thomas wrote his commentary, there is now a direct link to radical Imans who preach their hatred in mosques around the world.

As Thomas correctly notes, the Koran proclaims non-Muslims as “infidels” not fit to walk the earth with Muslims. In the 1950s, our government rooted out Communists who wanted to turn our country into a Communist state. Remember Joe McCarthy who focused the nation’s attention on the insidious efforts of international communism to “rule the world?” Islam has the same goal and may be a greater threat to our way of life in the 21st century than Communism was in the last century.

How ironic that an international religious institution can cloak its vile intentions to kill Americans under the very Constitution that guarantees Americans the right to religious freedom. Major Nidal Hasan who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood was motivated by an Imam at a mosque in Northern Virginia, only a few miles from the nation’s capital. You can be sure the next massacre(s) is being preached and planned in some mosque somewhere in America at this very moment. Will your children or loved ones be the next victims?

Chuck Smith

Carson City

Heller’s gun control vote was unacceptable

The Senate bill on reasonable gun legislation calling for universal background checks at gun shows, internet sales and on the mental state of the purchaser (favored by 90 percent of Americans and majority of gun owners and NRA members) and the amendments banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines (also favored by majority of Americans) is just plain common-sense. Yet Sen. Heller voted no. Shame on you.

Heller wrote in the Nevada Appeal on April 18 that he ate at the Carson IHOP recently in remembrance of the 2011 mass shooting there and also that the Senate bill could lead to gun registration. What hypocrisy (or just plain ignorance)! Only with weapons of mass destruction can such mass murders occur. Heller opposes banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Also, the bill specifically stated that gun registration would be a crime. Claiming it would bring about registration is an outright lie (or ignorance of the bill). Either way, it’s unacceptable.

Government isn’t coming for anybody’s guns! This is fear-mongering by the NRA. Its spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, is just a shill for gun manufacturers and gun stores to increase sales. It’s always about the money.

The vote was anti-democracy, more like NRA tyranny. Ninety percent of Democrats voted yes, while 90 percent of Republicans voted no. Nevada voters need to make Sen. Heller a one-term senator. We need to make Congress put the interests and well-being of the community (especially its children) ahead of the gun-lobby and special interests. Inaction in the face of danger is un-American and cowardly!

Vince Agamenone

Carson City