The Chron Shows Its Bias

The editorial staff at the Houston Chronicle are quick to take the low road with what I am sure they thought was a catchy headline in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the rag:

Weapon of mall destruction

The first two letters under the headline:

Where's courage?

Regarding Thursday's Page One article "Massacre in the mall: 9 die in Omaha store / SCENE: Shopping turns to mayhem when man opens fire with a rifle": We went to war in Iraq because our president convinced at least some of us that we had to prevent weapons of mass destruction from being used against us. When will we muster the courage to fight the weapons of mass destruction that our own citizens use to take innocent lives — as happened in Omaha, Neb.?

Why do we refuse to acknowledge the real reason these senseless crimes happen?

KATHY BUTLER
Houston


He knew his right

Robert Hawkins, who killed eight people and then himself at an Omaha, Neb., department store, did not know the difference between famous and infamous, but he did know that he had a constitutional right to bear an SKS assault rifle.

DONALD M. HAYES
Montgomery

There was one letter published that looked at it from a different perspective:

Blame off the mark

Regarding the mall shooting in Omaha: A young white male, a psycho-logical weakling who couldn't deal with what life handed him, got his hands on a gun and shot and killed innocent people. Now comes the wailing, cater-wauling, hand-wringing, "blame the guns" and cries of "Ban the NRA!"

Let's get some facts in here, folks: "Assault weapon/assault rifle" are bombastic mis-nomers. All firearms are assault weapons, in that they can, indeed, be used to assault someone. The so-called assault weapon is not necessarily fully automatic; the SKS is a semi-automatic carbine, detachable magazine — one trigger pull, one round fired.

The real problem lies in a society that can create such a monster as young Robert Hawkins. If everyone who has been evicted by their parents, been fired, and/or been dump-ed did such a terrible thing, this country wouldn't have ever hit the 300 million mark.

JOHN E. MEAGHER
Waller

One thing that I do like about the Chron, is that they allow online commentary to the articles and editorials. If you feel in an instructive mood, head on over and see what you can do. Comments are here.