To the Editor:

Shame upon the people of Newtown, Connecticut, for some of you have come to Nevada and pushed for implementing laws that aid criminals. Gun laws do nothing to impede career criminals from acquiring firearms, as the recent murder of two women in Gardnerville and a couple in Sparks, Nevada by an illegal alien proved, as the firearms were stolen from the Sparks couple. No background check, no Form 4473 filled out, no obstacles like I’ve had to pass when purchasing firearms.

Kennesaw, Georgia has a mandatory gun ownership ordinance with guesstimated 95 percent compliance, and yet the lowest criminal activity rating for towns close to a large city, Atlanta. In the 36-plus years since enactment of said ordinance, they’ve experienced less than a dozen murders and no mass shootings. Open and concealed carry is as per Georgia law.

In Nevada, we have no permit required open carry, and I’ve been open carry since retiring from the Navy, late 1993. Our criminal activity is low and no mass shootings. It gives me great joy when I cross paths with a woman with an open carry sidearm. It gives me even greater joy when I’ve crossed paths with several couples open carrying sidearms with children in tow, including my own stepson and his wife, both RNs and two children.

My advice to Newtown residents is to tell Hartford to go to Hades, arm up and train up to protect yourselves and your children and for those teachers who will volunteer, train, and carry on school campus, for while those children are in your charge their lives are in your hands.

If machines such as AK-47s, AR-15s have no place in a “civilized” society, then neither do vehicles such as Porsche 911s, Ferraris, Lamborginis, or motorcycles with engines larger than four hundred cubic centimeters and or bodywork like that of motorcycles found on race tracks.

For anyone who says I don’t know squat about Connecticut, I started the 1963-64 school year, third grade at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico and finished it at John B. Stanton Elementary in Norwich, attended fourth grade at Pleasant Valley Elementary in Groton 1964-65, then served five and a half years at NAS Brunswick, Maine. And how many people born and raised in Connecticut know of or visited Gillette Castle, twice, not to mention anyone not a Connecticut native?

And, yes, I know of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Vance Rushing, Petty Officer 1st Class

Air Traffic Controller, US Navy Retired

11520 Oregon Boulevard, Reno, Nev.         February 18, 2019