Protect SNAP

AR-15s

Re “Stigma” (Your Views, April 9): I agree with David Murphy, laws against AR-15s are bad. While we’re on the subject, we should get rid of laws prohibiting drunk driving, too. After all, millions of people drive drunk every year without getting into accidents. Someone I know told me he’s driven drunk hundreds of times, and nothing bad ever happened to him. In fact, it is only a tiny minority of drunk drivers (with mental problems?) who cause accidents.

Drunk driving laws are a liberal infringement on our rights, rights guaranteed by the constitutional amendment that ended Prohibition. They are just like the silly proposals to restrict owning military assault weapons, a right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. If you are a real American, you need to be able to carry an AR-15 with you as you drive drunk.

My statement is just as ludicrous as his. It took years and many deaths to get to where we are in attempting to control DUIs. Many excuses to delay those laws are being used by so-called gun rights advocates today. There are no reasonable reasons why anybody needs an AR-15, a weapon of war, for personal use. If Murphy wants to have and use a weapon of war, let him join the military.

As for gas stoves, gas cars and incandescent bulbs, improving them is not banning them. It’s called progress, something Murphy and many Republicans seem to be against.

— John Kates, Virginia Beach

Please continue to protect SNAP and please let it remain as a program offered to low-income recipients. I realize that the emergency period for COVID-19 is over, but the economy is not in balance. Many jobs are available, but inflation is still a global problem, and it is often necessary for people, including those with disabilities and seniors and children, to have a supplemental support for food in order to put a balanced diet on their table. There is a problem with food pantries not receiving enough food, so they can’t make up for the lack of nutrition in someone’s dietary needs. Thank you.

— Mary Mathena, Virginia Beach

Gun control

Every time there is a mass killing incident involving a person with a firearm, the gun control harpies come out of the woodwork to voice their ideals. Fortunately most reasonable legislators understand that more laws will not make a dime’s worth of difference. If you think that’s incorrect, take a look at the cities that have some of the strictest gun control legislation. They include but are not limited to Philadelphia, Baltimore and

— Jim Fronkier, Hampton

Come together

Re “Commitment to accuracy” (Our Views, April 4): As a grandparent to a 3-year-old, I see climate change as the current challenge that is most dependent on media accuracy and honesty.

In our partisan society, there is room for us to disagree on best public policies. Climate change, for example, can be addressed through a “tool box” that includes incentives, regulations and market methods. Where the process breaks down, however, is when we change our focus from solutions to rejecting the existence of the problem. The 3-year-old that I mentioned may grow up to marry the grandchild of someone who disagrees with me on climate change.

But both, I and my opponent, wish for our grandchildren to have grandchildren of their own, and this shared value must inform our response.

Earth Day arrives soon, but on this vital topic, every day must be Earth Day.

— Chris Wiegard, Chester

Justice

Re “Trump melds ‘24, legal defense” (April 8): On April 5, former President Donald Trump “called on his party to defund the FBI and Justice Department in response to his criminal indictment.” Do we really want a president who would do this?

His statements of what he wants for this country would be the end in many ways of the United States of America. Think about it.

— Janice Aleck, Norfolk