Don Bye likes to spin the truth. In his Jan. 24 column titled “Gun allowance,” Bye made the following statement in an attempt to denigrate the NRA and its elected official grading system:

“All of Minnesota’s federal elected officials are rated either A or F. There is no room for grading in between, no B, no C, no D, just 10 times A or F.”

This is a completely false statement, as the NRA grading system consists of A, B, C, D and F complete with pluses and minuses. It just happens that several of our current federally elected officials warrant F’s from the NRA.

Violence needs to be on the national agenda. Guns are only one of the tools for violence.

“... since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar years of existence. There were only 21 calendar years in which the U.S. did not wage any wars.” (To 2011.) (http://americanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/bltimelineuswars.htm and http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/12/we-re-at-war-and-we-have-been-since-1776/.)

We are annually among the top arms sellers in the world.

It’s not about guns;

it’s about control

I read in disgust the so-called “non”-partisan article by Don Bye in the Jan. 24 Echo.

I was amazed that in one paragraph he would be able to claim that the problem lies with the NRA and that the partisanship is on the right, and then in his last sentence he closes with an outright and — dare I say — deliberate lie about “fully automatic assault rifles.”

Mr. Bye, it has been illegal for citizens to own fully automatic guns of any kind since the 1930s and this was further defined in the ‘60s.

While peaceful demonstrators stood on the steps of our state capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 22, in solidarity over the sanctity of life, a very different story was happening under their noses as lawmakers met to discuss the Minnesota Insurance Exchange (part of Obamacare).

Attending that meeting I noted a certain frenzy to pass the “data” section out of committee by the Democrat members — without any legal guidelines for the appeals process for eligibility and determination or any money available to maintain it.