Christine Haeussling’s letter to the editor, in which she decries the recent placement of an advertisement by a local shooting range, makes little sense.
She apparently complains that the advertisement is “advertising the good American values a la ‘I’m gonna buy me a gun ‘n defend mahself.'” The ad does not make this claim, and even if it does, what of it? Is she protesting “the good American values” in general, or just self-defense? Is she claiming that the people who purchase guns are uneducated Midwesterns (whom I am seemingly expected to despise)? On what basis is that objectionable?
She questions, based on the “spawning of the school shooting trend in the last few years,” whether this ad is apropriate for a school paper. Whyever not? Shooting at a range is no more an inducement to murder than driving a car is to vehicular manslaughter. Ought we to remove the paper’s sports section due to violence and doping allegations?
In the end, Christine’s letter is composed of little more than intangible insinuations and mistaken generalizations. This is not acceptable from an informed writer or critical thinker.
Eric Baldwin
Electircal engineering senior