GUNS

Regarding “The NRA Fights Back,” by Paul Houston (July 30): Please don’t give the National Rifle Assn. any more free publicity. It’s depressing to read of so many people so helpless that only a gun can give them the delusion of power.

It is even more pathetic that these people fail to realize they’re being used by the NRA--not to protect a constitutional right but to protect a lucrative market. Guns are big business in this country--such big business that President George Bush’s gesture of banning the import of semiautomatic weapons will have a tiny effect on their availability here, because most semiautomatic weapons in the United States are manufactured here. The best aspect of this for the gun manufacturers and retailers is that the market is self-perpetuating. Easy access to guns has made this country almost unbelievably dangerous, and many Americans turn in fear to gun ownership.

RENEE LEASK, Sunland