To the Editor:

This is an open letter to Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., our district’s freshman congressman:

Your vote to filibuster expanded background checks to purchase guns will haunt you through your next election. To defend your vote based on the lies of the National Rifle Association speaks to your ignorance of what the bill really said, your incompetence to represent the will of your constituents, or your laziness to determine either.

If you talk to hunters and sportsman, you know that hunters have to buy licenses to hunt, have limits on the numbers of ducks, deer, turkeys, etc., that can be killed and have limits on the number of shells they can have in their guns.

Guess what? Nobody has come to take their guns away from them.   

These are all common sense measures to sustain the resource they want to hunt so their grandkids can enjoy the same experiences they have now. Surely our children who are our future deserve as much protection from common sense regulations as ducks or deer!

Over 31,000 people die EACH YEAR in the United States from gun violence — EACH YEAR! That is seven times more people than were killed in 10 years of war in Iraq and you want to do nothing! Shame on you.

Jane Harrison

Waynesville