George Bush

* Contrary to your May 12 editorial, “An Ex-President Aims True,” in which you praise ex-President Bush for resigning his lifetime membership in the NRA, my response is, “Where was he when it might have counted?” Now the ex-President suddenly finds the NRA “deeply offensive.” Has the organization undergone a great change in the past three years? Hardly. Their adamant stand against gun control has existed for years and is indirectly responsible for countless deaths.

I find this to be “deeply offensive.” Speaking out when he was President carried a significant political risk. Now as a private citizen his resignation is a gesture of little real impact, carrying no risk and certainly not to be described as showing “praiseworthy courage.”

G.A. LANGER

Pacific Palisades

* My only regret about Bush’s resignation from the NRA is that I so solidly supported him in his bid for a second term. I see his resignation as just one more facet to a well-orchestrated media effort to vilify and discredit the NRA, gun ownership and the Second Amendment, in the wake of the tragedy in Oklahoma, and feel totally betrayed.

The NRA should have revoked Bush’s life membership when he broke ranks with gun owners and banned all imported semiautomatic rifles in 1990. Instead, the NRA refused to endorse him in his reelection bid. Without the endorsement, gun owners either voted for Ross Perot or skipped voting for President all together.

MICHAEL A. PACER

Glendora