Mark Gluckstern

Bob Schaffer's "Barriers still exist to our right to fight back" starts by referring to police officers as government employees. Of course, that's true to a degree. Taxpayers do pay their salaries, just as they pay the salaries of state senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and public school principals (isn't that right, Bob?). In the case of police officers, it's easier to put them down if you call them government employees.

It's ever so fashionable to hate the government, which can be blamed for practically everything, including the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise. As Schaffer points out, Scalise was shot by a crazed leftist, but more to the point, his assailant was a violent man with a history of abuse. He shouldn't have had a gun. Though many states have laws preventing such men from owning guns, those laws, thanks to the NRA, are often circumvented.

The NRA works hard to ensure no American ever loses the right to own a gun — crazed or not, violent or not, abuser or not. Gun manufacturers contribute millions to the NRA, which uses paranoia-driven rhetoric to help gun manufacturers sell more guns. The NRA also uses its funds to buy the affections of lawmakers in order to ensure the only new gun laws in America are the ones that aid the cause of gun proliferation.

There are so many of these government employees making laws to please the NRA and the gun manufacturers, all of which keeps the money flowing into every pocket. It's the business version of a perpetual motion machine. You can almost hear the ka-ching every time a pocket is filled.

And then some crazed gunman ruins it all by shooting a congressman in the park. Schaffer believes if the congressmen were allowed to have had guns in their duffel bags, the tragedy would have been avoided.

Schaffer overlooks the obvious: The shooter in such situations always has the initial upper hand. The element of surprise is at work. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the gun out of the hand of the shooter? The only negative effect would have been one less ka-ching.

Mark Gluckstern, Fort Collins