Ashcroft’s Gun Record Stance Payback to NRA

Re “Short Life for Gun Records,” June 29: Just when we thought we had an attorney general with a modicum of common sense, we are told that John Ashcroft wants to destroy all gun purchase records almost immediately after the sale. Why require a record at all if this is the case? Hopefully, this political payback to the National Rifle Assn. will be scuttled on review. If not, the gun madness in America will continue unabated.

In the same issue of The Times, it was reported that assault guns are legal if not specifically banned (“Challenge to Gun Ban Upheld”). Who needs an assault weapon besides the two who held up the Bank of America using assault weapons and body armor? Enlightenment on gun issues seems a long way off for Americans.

J.R. Thompson

Irvine

Ashcroft has shown the American public just where his loyalty lies and who his main backers are: naturally, the NRA. I wonder if he would have changed the gun laws so quickly if he were sitting in the wheelchair that [former White House Press Secretary James] Brady now occupies. Records are a must to trace guns and to know who has them.

Ray Galvan

Sun City