Letters to the Editor: Liberals are buying firearms. Will they admit they were wrong about ‘gun nuts’?

To the editor: What the heck? Liberals are now buying firearms? Isn’t there a little cognitive dissonance here?

Are these folks also going to vote for the party that advocates stricter firearms regulation? Or are they tacitly acknowledging that the folks they have demeaned as “gun nuts” were right after all in terms of personal defense?

This is pretty weird to me. Next I suppose these folks will be applying for concealed carry permits, which they could get in most states, though not in much of California.

Maybe a good thing they could do is join the National Rifle Assn. and take advantage of its safety training programs.

John Bowen, Goleta

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To the editor: Entrenchment is leading to anger. How do we deal with it? Unfortunately, the thorn that irritates progress in our country is the insane thought that “if I only had a gun, I could protect myself.”

When Black Panthers carrying licensed guns shadowed police in Oakland, there was a backlash of whites buying guns in record numbers. Is the same backlash infecting left-leaning folks buying guns in record numbers because of white nationalists?

Guns are at the center of ubiquitous danger in the U.S. This danger is captured when police responding to a call must ask, “Is anyone armed?” or when nonwhite drivers must ask, “Will I be shot just for driving?”

And now, all of us can ask, “After the election, will there be gun violence?”

For the safety of our democracy, the problem of widespread gun ownership must be addressed.

James Severtson, Reseda