Thursday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">NRA's non-solution</p> <p>EDITOR: Wayne LaPierre, the spokesman for the National Rifle Association, must believe we're all fools. He suggested putting armed police in schools to stop gun violence in schools.</p><p>He must have forgotten that many of the people who have used assault-type weapons to murder so many of us also killed themselves. In that respect, they're no different from suicide bombers who have plagued so many people throughout the world, including people on U.S. military bases. Those bases are filled with armed soldiers and military police who are trained to deal with those bombers.</p><p>Why doesn't he recognize keeping armed police on a school campus will be ineffective to stop people who are willing to die in order to kill whomever they want? Could it be that the NRA is most interested in preserving the profits of gun manufacturers?</p><p>FRANK N. PANZA</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><h3>Shopping locally</h3> <p>EDITOR: I really appreciated your article about etiquette (“Etiquette matters just as much today,” Sunday) by Meg McConahey, specifically about the advice to give fun stationery to kids to encourage thank you notes.</p><p>What I want to point out though, is that while you mention Corrick's as a local business for nice stationery, you neglected to mention another long time (more than 60 years) and locally owned, family-run business, Fireside Stationery in Montgomery Village.</p><p>My step-mom and dad have owned it for almost a decade, and before that, she worked there for several decades. I teach full time, but on weekends<NO1>, a day off, or even on my way home,<NO> you can find me behind the counter helping out<NO1> the family<NO>.</p><p>Similarly, my step-brother, Brian, is also there helping out customers when he has a free moment. When customers come in, they get friendly, personal service from a family they have gotten to know and have seen through marriages, adoption and the tough economy. In a time when people are shopping local as a priority, shoppers come to our store instead of the corporate stores in town, sometimes from many<NO1> towns and<NO> miles away, because Fireside Stationery is such a friendly, helpful place.</p><p>TRISH TERRELL</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><h3>A sell-out night</h3> <p>EDITOR: Kudos to Press Democrat Staff Writer Guy Kovner for his coverage of the Sing-Along Messiah. His article really captured the essence of what Christmas is all about, and Crista Jeremiason's photos were awesome.</p><p>A sell-out was beyond our wildest dreams, and we feel badly about the people we had to turn away. If we could have worked magic to find extra seats, we would have.</p><p>We appreciate all the support which goes toward funding music education for approximately 20,000 Sonoma County school children. Hopefully, one day these children will appreciate the Messiah as we do. We're looking forward to Sing-Along Messiah 2013.</p><p>FRANCES SWANSON</p><p>and SHEILA McQUILLEN</p><p><i>Santa Rosa Symphony League</i></p><h3>Keeping guns safely</h3> <p>EDITOR: One of the checks and balances of government power provided by our forefathers in the Constitution is the people's right to keep and bear arms. The Declaration of Independence says it is not only “the right of the people to alter or to abolish” a government that becomes too destructive or despotic, but it is our “duty” to overthrow it.</p><p>To honor our civic duty and to keep our government in check, the citizenry was guaranteed the ability to maintain weaponry equal to that of our armed forces. In recent years, we have seen how revolutions in Egypt and elsewhere were only successful when the citizen's weapons were equal to the government's.</p><p>But, while it is a necessary right of citizens to maintain a hydrogen bomb, for example, in describing this right, the Constitution employed the words “well regulated.” <NO1>I argue that citizens keeping armament must maintain controls similar to those employed by our military<NO>.</p><p>Our military keeps assault rifles and ammunition securely locked in periodically inspected arms rooms. Thus, for our safety, shouldn't citizens choosing to maintain powerful weapons have their weapons storage facilities periodically inspected?</p><p>SCOTT WILSON</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><p>A nation sleeps</p><p>EDITOR: It was a surreal experience: A moment of silence at a holiday party Friday for the children and others who were fatally shot by a sadly disturbed young man. Minutes later, one of my colleagues said how our drones in the Middle East save soldiers' lives. I just said I thought they were terrible.</p><p>I didn't get the ironic juxtaposition. It hit me later, and it refuses to leave my consciousness: I wonder how many Sandy Hook's worth of drone strikes we have perpetrated in others' countries.</p><p>Then, I was reminded of the little-known tragedy of our spent uranium ammunition resulting in the births of deformed and critically ill children in Iraq. We are a caring nation; we weep and feel our hearts so heavy for Sandy Hook. But we are also a terribly asleep nation. If not, we would mourn daily the terrible losses in our name, losses in the name of money and oil and politics. I think we are asleep and sick. And I think we need to get better fast. I pray we do.</p><p>RAY TEURFS</p><p><i>Forestville</i></p>