Countering counterpoints

To the Editor,

I'm sorry I hurt Rob Denham's feelings with my 'needlessly caustic' letter. After all, he's been so gentlemanly when referring to our President and liberals in general. I guess it's OK to dismiss my facts when his opinion is at stake.

However, there is a difference between opinions and facts. If what Denham offers are opinions, he should make that clear lest gullible readers actually believe that President Obama was born in Kenya. Obama's birth certificate was certified by the Hawaiian government, our courts have dismissed these ludicrous suits and governmental and private investigations have discredited the claims and the claimants. If Denham provides his actual birth certificate, not a certified copy, I'll buy him lunch.

Do you have healthcare, Rob? Ever needed health insurance and been denied? Know anyone who would refuse affordable healthcare? If so, would you pay if they did become ill, hurt in an accident or sprained an ankle? You'd be paying for their room, board and healthcare if they were tossed in jail. What's the difference?

People already pay enormous costs for what passes for healthcare, wait weeks to get a doctor's appointment or test results and are refused or billed for procedures at the whim of an insurance company employee working to meet his quota of denials. I discussed the myth of Canadians coming here for healthcare in previous letters. How about the thousands of Americans who are going overseas for care that is prohibitively expensive or denied here?

My comment concerning gun control has nothing to do with law-abiding firearm owners or retail gun shops. New-gun retailers are closely regulated. Laws require them to obtain licenses, keep transaction records to track firearms used in crimes, and perform background checks on buyers to ensure they can legally own guns. Convicted felons, drug addicts, the mentally ill and illegal immigrants are among those who may not. Nonprofessional used-gun traders are subject to none of those requirements. Yet, even though resellers are forbidden from selling guns to buyers who couldn't pass a background check, studies show that this law is regularly ignored at gun shows. The NRA is adamantly against closing the loophole which would stop this.

These measures wouldn't restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens; their intent is to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. The gun lobby raises Cain whenever restrictions are proposed but still hasn't explained why it wants to make it easy for murderers, maniacs and other felons to obtain firearms.

And I'd like to correct one other point. The crowd at the Washington march was estimated at 70,000 to 100,000. Photos showed the mathematical impossibility of the enormous numbers reported being able to squeeze into the area shown. That's still an impressive number. Two million sounds better but it's not true. Must be another of Denham's opinions, just not the facts.

Sharon Davis Green

Weirton