To the editor: Last weekend, I called Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, Texas, and spoke with an employee. He informed me that starting June 15 it will once again be legal to buy a booster stock. (“The Supreme Court did everything possible to ignore common sense in reinforcement actions”, Opinion, June 14)
The owner of that business sued to legalize these “props” again, alleging that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) went too far in banning the sale of booster stocks. And the Supreme Court agreed, striking down the federal regulation in a 6-3 ruling.
While the clerk told me the store didn't have any of these semi-automatic rifle upgrades in stock, I could buy one online for $350.
Yeah! For just $350, anyone can purchase an add-on that offers the ability to fire between 400 and 800 rounds per minute. That's just what our nation needs: an easier way to slaughter.
In a Supreme Court concurring opinion, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote that it is up to Congress to prohibit bump stocks, not the ATF. So in this country, where the leading cause of death among children is gun violence, children will just have to wait for Congress to act. What can go wrong?
Elizabeth Osborne, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: Op-eds and editorials often ridicule or praise the Supreme Court based on the political implications of its decisions. But the court's mandate is not to do “what is best” in terms of policy (or even enforcement). That is the mandate of Congress.
The court's job is to determine whether a law or executive action is consistent with the various provisions of the United States Constitution.
In this case, the court decided that if the goal is to prohibit bump stocks, then Congress must amend the law to specify such a prohibition. And that decision is correct.
If public pressure is to be put on a branch of government, it should be up to Congress to enact better policies, not the court to decide what is best.
Peter Marston, Glendale
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To the editor: I recently returned from a two-week trip to several countries in Europe and the topic of conversation with many people I met was why there are so many gun deaths in the United States.
There is only one answer: the American judicial system has refused to recognize that the needs addressed by the Second Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1791, are nothing like our needs today.
We do not fear slave uprisings or invasions by foreign armies, and we have a standing army. Nowadays, the only thing we have to fear is someone else shooting us.
Chuck Heinz, West Hills
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To the editor: A baseball team has six of its nine players get hits in a game. With only that information, we have no way of knowing who received the results.
The Supreme Court issues a 6-3 decision in one case, in any case. We immediately know who the six were and who was among the three without knowing anything about the case itself.
So don't tell me the judges aren't politically motivated.
Larry Macedo, West Hills
