Letters to the editor

Why expand Reno veterans home?An AP article in the Nevada Appeal on Jan. 27 stated that Gov. Sandoval has proposed $3 million of extremely limited state funds for a feasibility and design study of a Reno-area vets nursing home. Why Reno? Why not Carson City? And why spend precious state funds to design a new facility that could will cost unknown millions of ever-scarce dollars when a potentially great housing situation for the estimated 90-plus resident veterans is hiding in plain sight at the southwest corner of South Carson and Fifth Streets?Gov. Sandoval, think outside the box. How far would that $3 million go towards leasing and actually retrofitting the old Ormsby House into a top-notch facility for America’s deserving veterans? Supposedly the individual rooms in the tower building are about complete and there is plenty of space for facilities for cooking, serving, physical therapy (there’s already a covered pool is on the roof), medical treatment and other functions common to a care facility.Perhaps the current Ormsby House owners would prefer to outright sell the old hotel to the public in a down market and deduct any loss as opposed to a long-term lease? Either way, it seems to many locals that the old hotel is destined to be Carson City’s perennial white elephant and never reopen. Why not retrofit this once-anchor to the south end of downtown Carson City and let it blossom again as a beautiful “Hero’s House” for some of America’s warriors? Mark StrubleCarson CityPut common sense back into gun ownershipThe Jan. 23 issue of the Journal had a letter from the NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre stating that all gun possessions are “God-given freedoms. They belong to us, in the United States of America as our birthright. No government gave them to us and no government can take them away.”LaPierre was talking about the right to own assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. I would like to ask where in the Bible or in the Ten Commandments or Beatitudes does it state that God or His son Jesus Christ wants his children, who He gave life to, to own weapons of mass destruction that were developed only to kill large numbers of people in a few minutes?Does LaPierre ever go to church, let alone read the Bible? Our Founding Fathers had no idea that these kinds of killing machines would ever be developed. The Second Amendment says that a “well-regulated” militia would have their right to own weapons in order to protect the citizens. Please do not blame God for the many murders that have been committed in the past few years with these killing machines.Let us get some common sense back into our gun ownership and laws to protect the people. I hope Congress will carry out their responsibility to protect the people.Donna JensenCarson CityObamacare was disturbing, not NRA eventYour article, “NRA event for lawmakers draws criticism,” raised some interesting points. First of all, Mr. Fadie of ProgressNow Nevada was quoted as saying, “For them (the NRA) to have a closed-door, closed-to-the-public, closed-to-the-media lobbying session with our legislators is disturbing.” Really? How about all of the closed-door, etc. sessions that resulted in Obamacare? Not disturbing? Secondly, what about Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom? He had no plans to attend the event, has no interest in learning how to shoot, yet intends to “introduce bills during the 120-day legislative session to prohibit the sale of assault weapons and restrict the size of ammunition magazines to fewer than 10 bullets.” Sounds like a case of “Don’t confuse me with the facts” to me. I’d love to hear his definition of an “Assault Weapon,” as there actually is no such thing. While I freely admit I know little about the law or lawyers, what if I could get a law passed that said all lawyers must pay all costs associated with lawsuits that they lose? Of course, we as citizens have a constitutional right to own firearms, while Mr. Segerblom has no such right to collect legal fees.Ken WattersGenoa