Re: John Crisp's column March 27, "Marching won’t restrain the NRA”:

John Crisp alleges the high school murders in Parkland, Florida, were “caused by easy access to needlessly powerful weapons,” caused by the “NRA’s political influence,” i.e., “Too much money in the political system is overwhelming rational approaches to problem solving.”

Crisp was quite impressed by the “articulate and intelligent high school students.” However, the media presented no students displaying any knowledge of what an “assault rifle” is or is not, why the NRA should be blamed for anything, what the U.S. Constitution says about gun rights, what the U.S. Supreme Court says about gun rights, what is required to modify gun rights, or how they will select politicians to support.

Crisp’s first error is that the Parkland shooting could not have been caused by “easy access to powerful weapons.” That access has existed since at least 1792, but school shootings were not a problem until Columbine in 1999. The cause is something new, like decreased family values, video games, cellphones, etc.

Crisp’s second error is blaming the NRA when he knows it did not support any law aiding the Parkland shooter, nor oppose any law that could have prevented it. If he, or anyone else, knew of such a law, we would have heard about it by now.

He also knows the “problem” is the Supreme Court’s two decisions (in 1939 and 2008) that only weapons with “military usefulness” and “in common use” by those who own weapons are protected by the Second Amendment. A lawful “military weapon” ban is not an option until the Second Amendment has been modified.

Finally, Crisp did not define what he means by a “rational approach” to school shootings. He apparently hopes to replace the Second Amendment with “common sense.”

Larry DeSha, Camarillo

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