Let me begin by commending the Patriot News for taking a stand for the safety of communities and against the National Rifle Association, with the editorial opposing the bill that would allow the NRA to have standing to sue communities that enact gun safety legislation.

I can't help but wonder why the NRA, a group that claims to represent law-abiding gun owners, would be so opposed to cites passing reporting laws, etc. It seems like common sense that any stolen property would be reported.

Perhaps the NRA is little more than a gun manufacturers lobby. The Violence Policy Center has done extensive research on this. The NRA, much like the tobacco lobby, might have little or no concern about the damage their products cause. The current, NRA-led opposition the the nominee for Surgeon-General over his insistence that gun violence is a public health issue may have echoes to the battle to have cigarette smoking seen in the same way.

Groups like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence point out the NRA espouses "Insurrectionism," the idea that citizens have the right to rise up against their government. The Southern Poverty Law Center has Gun Owners of America Larry Pratt in the same category as neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

The paranoia and insurgent rhetoric of the insurrectionists drives people to purchase firearms, providing money for the manufacturers to donate to the NRA and the cycle repeats. Meanwhile, folks in our schools, on our streets and in our communities are seen as little more than a price of freedom.

JAMES D'ANGELO, Wormleysburg