Readers sound off on gun culture, robot dogs and covering bail reform

Brick, N.J.: The obstinacy of the entire Republican Party in defending and promoting citizen ownership and carry of any and all types of killing machines runs counter to its self-proclaimed “pro-life” stance. The GOP platform violates a number of the Founding Fathers’ stated purposes in establishing a new form of government. It violates the first purpose in our preamble — to form a more perfect union. How does the massacre of thousands of innocent Americans make this a more perfect union?

This party falsely claims that unfettered gun ownership and carry rules provides for the common defense, to which one might ask, “Who exactly is defended by guns significantly outnumbering our human population?” The next purpose was to promote general welfare. But gun proliferation with increasing potential for mass murder can not rationally promote welfare! The final purpose of the Constitution is to secure the blessings of liberty to our Fathers and to us, their posterity. For American children and their parents to live in fear of mass murder is no blessing.

The Republican Party pats itself on the back for its pro-unborn life stance but fails to acknowledge its responsibility in creating this pro-death society, first in murder in the entire world! And where is the well-regulated militia the Second Amendment talks about? Where are the regulations? If we the people must live in fear of being mowed down anywhere at any time, then gun-carrying citizens should be allowed in both chambers of Congress, in the Supreme Court and in the White House! Then these well-protected officials will face the same danger as ordinary citizens. Nicholas S. Molinari

Pearl River, N.Y.: In referencing Voicer Richard L. Ottinger’s letter, I have to disagree with his conclusion that the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment. While I understand the frustration over the gun violence happening in this country, having the justices disallow and negate the second item of the Bill of Rights is not the way to go. Those first 10 amendments had to be passed as a condition of the Constitution being ratified. The Founders, in their wisdom, did allow for alterations to be made to the original document. If the majority of Americans wish to alter, or even do away with the amendment in question, they can do so by voting on it. Thomas McNaughton

Chester, N.J.: Voicer William Leggett compared Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s vacations to acts of kindness and getting a pen from a presidential bill signing. Even if the pens handed out are worth $100-$200, the trips Thomas took were sometimes worth $500,000. What would influence you more? There is a difference, Mr. Leggett, between taking somebody to a football game (average price of an NFL ticket is $75-$200) and buying them VIP room tickets at almost $12,000 (and that is not the resale price, that is the cost if you can get one). So Thomas is on the take. Period. David J. Melvin

Whitestone: Mayor Adams’s “bright light” is sending in robots to patrol the subways (“Robo-dog is here to ‘stay,’ ” April 13). Is he kidding? Instead of funding and hiring police, he is getting robots to keep the subway safe. Once one of these upstanding citizens decides to go smash the robots to bits, that’s more wasted taxpayer money. How about more police, and change the bail laws to the way they used to be. Crime will then go down. Three more years of this silliness can’t go fast enough and we can vote this dope out. Gene O’Brien

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Brooklyn: There are two things a dog leaves on the sidewalk: poop and urine. Why are dogs allowed to relieve themselves on city streets where people walk? Why should the front of my home be a dog toilet? Why can’t the dog owners let their pets do their business on their own property? Marie Walsh

Manhattan: Bail reform received a message of clarity with Laura Pitter’s op-ed in The News (“Don’t roll back progress on bail,” April 13). Elected officials should pay heed to its wisdom. So should headline writers at the Daily News and other newspapers. You will see a headline, “Out on bail, he is arrested.” No headlines state that 100 youths are sitting on Rikers Island for more than a year because they can’t come up with $500 bail. It is also not reported that many cop a plea, even when innocent, to get out of that gulag and get on with their lives, albeit with a blot on their record that affects future job hunting. Ex-cons’ arrests are stories that do not challenge America’s high recidivism rate. Those institutions mostly exacerbate alienation without challenging a person on why he or she is imprisoned. Headlines hardly reveal the systemic failure of our prisons. Newspapers should enlighten elected officials while doing some inventory on their own choices. David Rothenberg, founder, The Fortune Society

Peters Township, Pa.: Is anyone surprised that Donald Trump is attempting to silence Mike Pence, seeking court action to block his testimony regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election? Trump is not an intelligent man, but he is smart enough to know that any testimony from the ever-loyal Pence could be devastating and land him squarely in even greater legal jeopardy. Repugnant though his ultra-conservative ideology is, Pence has demonstrated himself to be an honest man who respects the rule of law and the Constitution. He would be expected to offer the whole truth and, unlike the former president, to eschew any assertion of Fifth Amendment privilege. Trump must not be permitted to run out the clock to again stymie the effort to bring him to justice. I have to believe the courts will see through his efforts to hold self-interest supreme and reject this latest ploy. Oren Spiegler

Rockaway Park: I am no fan of Donald Trump since he tore down my favorite department store, Bonwit Teller, to put up his monstrosity of a tower. The one thing he loves is to see his name on buildings and in the press, so I have an idea to make him even crazier than he already is: Do not put his name or picture in any article that you publish (at least for a while) and maybe other publications can follow suit. Since he thinks only good things should be said and written about him, this would probably drive him nuts. Sharon Gabriel

Manhattan: It’s obvious that the Dallas Mavericks and other inept teams were tanking games so they would finish the season and get a top 10 pick in the draft. If they did, that pick would have gone to the New York Knicks. The NBA should punish teams for tanking because people will stop coming to games, thus depriving concession people and others who rely on fans. Edward Drossman

Rockaway Park: Liberals love to invent new names for ugly things or create euphemisms. Take, for example, the recent hubbub about the abortion drug mifepristone. Liberals are outraged that some states are banning its use. They claim that women’s reproductive rights are being infringed upon. Well, the dictionary defines reproduction as “the act of creating new individuals biologically.” Its synonym would be the word procreation. So, a drug or procedure designed to kill an unborn child can hardly be called a “reproductive” right. Perhaps the phrase “anti-reproductive right” should be used instead. People need to stop and consider what they are saying and doing, and stop sugar-coating horrible things. Peter Galvin

Fort Lauderdale, Fla: Vanity of vanities — Amazon and PayPal founders Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel are investing billions into anti-aging formulas. Sorry to burst their bubble, but “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). If you want to live forever in a new body that will never die, believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead to give eternal life to all who believe in Him and repent of their sins. Your eternal life begins when you die. Happy eternity. Jim Black