Gun owners are Rep. Faso’s constituents, too

Dear Editor, Suggestions that U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, return contributions from the National Rifle Association are off base.

Many thousands of law-abiding constituents are gun owners and NRA members. And while NRA campaign contributions may not represent the values of some critics, the do in fact represent the values of many local and legal members of the NRA in our district.

Those who push for banning firearms want us to hate the NRA. They want non-gun owners to believe the NRA is just a collection of sick gun freaks wanting nothing more than to have a pile of guns and don’t care about the safety of our most treasured American children. This notion is absurd.

Many non-gun owners don’t realize there is no other organization on the planet that even comes close to providing gun safety seminars, classes and training programs as the NRA. School Shield is a program that fives a free overall security evaluation to any school that asks for it. No strings attached. And the Eddie Eagle Program teaches kids what to do if they encounter a gun at home, friend’s house or wherever.

School shootings are not the result of legal owners and the NRA but rather the breakdown of our mental health deficiencies.

Emotional appeals from the well-meaning citizens are understandable, but they aren’t as fruitful at problem-solving as they are divisive.

Bruce Freligh Saugerties, N.Y.