Readers Write for Friday, July 10

AIRPORT SIGNAGE

New signs alone won't address the problem

It's not the highway signs! Airline tickets should have the Humphrey or Lindbergh designation on them. Then travelers will know where they going and/or where they should be picked up.

PENI GENSLER, PLYMOUTH

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Once again the media's attention is focused on Palin, but when did it ever cease? Unlike its love affair with Barack Obama, the media launched a witch hunt aimed at Palin and her family that continued even after she and McCain lost.

Why do the media continue to prey on the small-town, uneducated hick politician from Alaska? Could it be that they are threatened by her unapologetic conservative views -- a menace to their liberal views and feminist agenda?

JANET BEZDICEK, PLYMOUTH

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A reader questioning the qualifications of Palin asked: "And since when do we support candidates merely on the basis of whether they can deliver a good speech?" The answer: We elected him as our 44th president last November.

JACK SCHUTZ, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS

FACTS ABOUT GUN CONTROL

Letter writers play down the power of the NRA

The two July 7 letter writers critical of Warren Spannaus and his call for reasonable restrictions on firearms are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

They alluded to the issue as having little interest or relevance with lawmakers today. Ask any legislator, especially those outstate, and they will tell you it is political suicide to vote against the wishes of the National Rifle Association.

Now for some facts:

• The 91-41 vote against the gunshow loophole amendment in the Minnesota House was on whether it was germane with the bill to which it was attached, not on its own merits.

• According to the FBI, since 1994 there have been more than 1.6 million rejections of attempts by prohibited people (usually convicted felons) to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer. In Minnesota alone, in 2005, there were 2,420 such rejections.

• The House amendment to close the gunshow loophole would not have banned any law-abiding person of legal age from purchasing a firearm.

• Under current Minnesota law, a private, nonlicensed person at a gunshow can sell a firearm -- including pistols and assault weapons -- to any person, of legal age, about whom they know nothing else.

This has nothing to do with wishing "to eliminate public access to all firearms," but everything to do with trying to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

JOAN A. PETERSON, DULUTH;

PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA CHAPTER,

MILLION MOM MARCH