To the editor:

In response to the Feb. 22 editorial urging compromise to achieve incremental improvements in safeguarding the public from lethal weapons: Is there no stronger appropriate response to outrageous injury and to very final sudden death?

To my own family, friends and neighbors who are members of the NRA, said to have bought the support of legislators under the guise of upholding the individual rights and freedoms that our government has a duty to protect, I would point out that it also has a duty to protect the rights and freedoms of civilized society. These two are closely linked; any loss to the one is also a loss to the other.

The NRA appears to derive massive financial support from the weapons industry, especially the manufacture and sales of guns and ammunition of all kinds. It also receives support from individual members in the form of fees, dues and donations, and, most importantly, because of their numbers, in political influence. It spends its money and influence to lobby legislators and emphasize an assumption that NRA members will not tolerate any curb on sales or ownership of any weapon.

Is this true of you? Do you really think it is OK for anyone to have a weapon designed solely for efficiency and ease in killing people? Shouldn’t NRA support be dropped and allegiance transferred to responsible citizenship?

Think carefully about this. The future of civilized society is at stake.