Letters: The NRA’s hip messenger

Re “The NRA’s new online sensation,� Column One, July 23

So, now that major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago are reporting impressive reductions in inner-city killings and gun violence in general, attributed to coordinated efforts of police, social services and city offices, the National Rifle Assn. recruits a black man with the pretentious stage name of “Noir� to speak in defense of owning and packing heat.

Of course, most black citizens aren’t nearly as enthusiastic as white NRA members about Colion Noir’s gun-ownership crusade. Unlike the bourgeois black urban gunslinger, they know what it is to live amid gunfire and funerals for children.

We should save noir for the movies, not the lectern.

David Eggenschwiler

South Pasadena

I can see the future now: In the stand-your-ground states, future Trayvon Martins will be armed even while running harmless errands. When they feel threatened, they will shoot with as much impunity as George Zimmerman did.

NRA supporters will be happy because they get to sell a lot more guns. Courts will become experts at gauging levels of threat.

How much is enough to justify a homicide?

Peter H. Merkl

Goleta, Calif.

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