Friday, September 26, 2008

This is the second time I have seen the photograph of the jubilant young lady cheering the Supreme Court's decision on gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller. In the photo, she holds a sign that reads ". . . Shall Not Be Infringed. Any Questions" ["A Workable Gun Law for the City," Close to Home, Sept. 21].

I have some questions: Has she ever kissed someone she loved for the last time, jolted by the blood clots on that person's forehead that are the result of a classroom shooting? Has she ever held a grieving mother who lost her "baby" or watched a heartbroken father eloquently address the media? Has she ever comforted a parent who felt lost because an only child had been killed? Has she ever listened to a father who will never escort his daughter down the aisle or a mother who will never have grandchildren? Does she have a child who lost his best friend and she has to explain why? Has she ever seen the sadness of loss in the eyes of neighbors and friends? Has she ever found herself giving someone a reason to live every day because that person lost a loved one to gun violence?

I have had these experiences, and seeing defiance and jubilance over a ruling that fosters such anguish is difficult to bear. There has to be a middle ground. We must find it so that others do not have to answer yes to my questions and be haunted forever.

LU ANN MACIULLA McNABB

Centreville

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Regarding the Sept. 21 Close to Home commentary "A Workable Gun Law for the City," by D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh:

Ms. Cheh, a constitutional lawyer, thinks the right to keep and bear arms is limited to one's home. How would she feel if the government tried to limit "free speech" to the home? What about rules on safe storage, registration and strict reporting of lost or stolen personal computers to protect children from child pornography and online pedophiles? Of course she would howl with justifiable outrage at these infringements on our civil liberties.

Her proposals, such as "micro-stamping" ammunition, are all thinly veiled "backdoor" gun control measures, restrictions that criminals will not observe but which will hamper law-abiding citizens as they try to exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1785, "Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." D.C. needs to enact a law licensing people to carry guns, and then the crime rate will fall, as shown by experience with similar laws enacted in Florida in 1987 and most other states since then.

JOHN HIGI

Arlington