NRA and Guns: Why Doesn’t the Press Discuss Car Control?

As a woman member of the National Rifle Assn., I take extreme exception to Ron Ekard’s letter to the editor (June 20).

He claims that the Second Amendment only covers firearms that were around when the Bill of Rights was written. Using his logic, the First Amendment does not cover any electronic media, any newspaper printed on a high-speed printing press or anything spoken over a microphone because they were not yet invented when our country was founded. And the Fourth Amendment does not protect you from having your automobile searched because they were not around in 1789.

Let me remind him that the Second Amendment was not written with sporting purposes in mind, but with the right of the people to protect themselves, their families and, above all else, their freedom.

As Thomas Jefferson said, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

If, God forbid, someday in the future our government becomes oppressive, they won’t be using single-shot, cap-and-ball pistols.

MARY ANN ESCANDON

Irvine