Blaming NRA for the slayings in Colorado makes no sense

This is in response to the letter that Linda Driver wrote (July 25) that NRA is to somehow be blamed for the senseless killing of 12 people with over 50 more wounded. You stated that the testosterone fueled members of National Rifle Association are partly to blame and I greatly take offense to that biased comment.

I'll have you to know that I am a 60-year-old grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren and am also a hunter, a gun owner and have been an active member of the NRA for decades. To blame them is like saying you blame insurance companies when cars are in accidents that kill people. That is how much sense it makes.

When you look at just how many millions of gun owners that there are in this great free country of ours and how few deaths there are from them, it puts it in perspective to show people like you who are hell bent in wanting to have our 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms taken from us.

-- Mary Watkins

Wasilla

We need perspective on movie theater killings

Could the media please give us a break with endless grisly accounts of the Aurora killings? I understand it was a tragedy, and our sympathies lie with the 70 innocent victims. But, we also need to appreciate that 86 Americans are killed by firearms every day, and nearly 4,000 are killed prematurely by chronic diseases linked with consumption of animal products and lack of exercise.

So, let's replace the vacuous hand-wringing over the Aurora tragedy with constructive personal steps to lessen the greater tragedies facing us every day.

-- Alexander Durbin

Anchorage

Alaska, Hawaii have always found a way to work together

Representatives of Alaska and Hawaii have always worked together since well before statehood. The representatives of Alaska and Hawaii decided they could not get statehood for Alaska and Hawaii at the same time and that Alaska should go first. Then with Alaska's votes they could obtain statehood for Hawaii. We did and Hawaii gained statehood the year following Alaska's admission to the Union.

-- Jerry McCutcheon

Anchorage

Lawsuit against downtown social services is a low blow

I would like to address Mr. Alleva of Grub Stake Auction Company and the nuisance suit against Brother Francis Shelter and Bean's Café Soup Kitchen to cease operations, pack up, and move basically because having them for neighbors displeases him. Even if the 12 Apostles had served on the City Zoning Board they could not have picked a better location for the shelter. Mr. Alleva, as a businessman of good standing, a community activist, this lawsuit is beneath you; tall trees compromise with the wind. A petty resentment of my way or the highway has turned into vendetta of biblical proportions. Your "the homeless have no bread to eat, then let them eat cake" attitude you are projecting I believe is out of character for you. The article in the Daily News says you are going to represent yourself in this lawsuit. Please make it a fair fight, hire a lawyer, fighting fair doesn't appear to be your strong suit. And even the humble caboose of a mighty freight train knows if you represent yourself in a court of law you have a fool for a client.

-- John Franklin II

Anchorage

Trash pickup rates confusing

Now I'm really confused. Recently Solid Waste Services changed from two-man routes to their new system and forced us all to abandon the trash cans we owned in favor of those they would rent to us. The rates went up as well. Now we hear from their representative that going back to the old two-man system would double the rates. If that's so, shouldn't we have seen a rate reduction when they adopted their new, more efficient and less costly system? Could it be that I'm not the one who is confused after all?

-- Mike Saville

Eagle River