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On January 5th, I posted about the firing of Dick Metcalf for writing an article in Guns & Ammo suggesting that it is time for some reasonable limits on guns.  For expressing his opinion as a respected journalist, he lost his job.  Even though the firing of a respected journalist is worrisome, the fact that a magazine would abdicate their journalistic responsibility and refuse to take a stand for fair discourse is really scary.  How many other magazines are letting their advertisers have the final say over their content?  Now, the NY Times has published letters to the editor responding to the Metcalf story.  I have copied the first one, but there are others you can read by clicking on the link.  

To the Editor:

Re “Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns” (front page, Jan. 5):

I read Dick Metcalf’s column, “Let’s Talk Limits,” in Guns & Ammo magazine and found nothing to cause the extreme overreaction that has come his way.

A more constructive response would have been a well-reasoned rebuttal, but that’s the whole point here. What I find disturbing is that this is no longer a conversation between dissenting sides.

As a responsible gun owner, I have never seen so many of these activists claim that the government wants to take away their guns. Registration is not confiscation. Limiting certain types of guns to law enforcement and military use is common sense. Gun restrictions have been part of American law since the 1800s.

This tyranny of the gun is being driven by a vocal few, aided by publications that abdicate their journalistic responsibility to weapons manufacturers and refuse to take a stand for fear of loss of revenue.

The issue is not the gun but the owner. Even the most rabid gun enthusiast has to have nagging doubts about a gun in the hands of an unstable person. Clearly, the conversation about sensible gun laws will resume only when gun manufacturers take the lead and support the proper use and responsible ownership of their products.

MARTIN J. PERRY
Massapequa, N.Y., Jan. 6, 2014

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