Editor, Virginian-Pilot:

I am not a “gun nut,” nor am I a National Rifle Association member. I am not writing this Letter as part of any national letter-writing campaign. I am simply disgusted with what col­umnist Colman McCarthy had to say in “Target Practice as Usual” (December 27 editorial page).

 He implies that the NRA employs slogans instead of reason, and that it twists any logic it tries to use. Show me the handgun that has spontaneous­ly killed. People do kill people. I, and all other men of good will, deplore wanton killings. But people, not guns, do it!

Twisted logic like McCarthy’s has transformed sleek automobiles of the past into the tanks of today. Cars don’t kill people either; bad drivers (and al­cohol) do. McCarthy and his like have brought this country to the brink of fi­nancial collapse through deficit financ­ing of wild schemes to protect me from myself. They don’t have the right to take anything away from me—not my gun, not my books, not my right to choose any path I desire—so long as I don’t harm others.

—R.G. Williscroft
Virginia Beach