To the editor,

I do like local newspapers. They need to be supported. And the PC Journal is a good one. Two columns I nearly always read are by editor Nigbor and regular contributor Wood.
Referring to Nigbor in the Sept. 17 PCJ, I totally agree that we need to recognize that gun violence affects both the Right and the Left, conservatives and liberals. It is not a conspiracy from one side or the other. We will always have Right and Left differences of varying intensity but killing never solves them.
There are strong political differences in other countries as well, and I suspect the ratio of crazed people to the population there is similar to ours.  Yet our rate of gun homicides is many times that of other First World democracies.  The difference is access to guns, especially high-capacity military style firearms. 
The 2nd Amendment of the Constitution states: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” So it was for the purpose of serving a well-regulated militia. Its author, James Madison, was a slave holder from Virginia. It is not conceivable that he, or the other slave holders who ratified it, would give that right to any black person, slave or free, or to any person not associated with a well-regulated militia. SCOTUS made an error here, in my opinion. We need meaningful and effective gun control.
Now, Dave, I use your given name because, from your writing of things familiar to me growing up, I think we are contemporaries. A three-hole outhouse? I believe it. I was a U.S. Public Health Service doctor assigned to the Peace Corps in Liberia, 1963-65, and we had a two-holer next to our offices that we labeled “Project Gemini.” That was the era. I still can’t imagine sharing that kind of intimate experience with anyone, not even a close relative. Love your column.

Donn Leaf

Bay City