Re: 'Defending the Second Amendment – An essential fight' [Ingram letter, Village News, 7/11/24]

Regarding California’s recently imposed additional excise tax on guns and ammo, Ingram claims: “The excise tax in question places an undue financial burden on law-abiding gun owners and enthusiasts,” but provides no support for his claim.

Taxes are what fund our state government, so it is entirely appropriate to tax gun and ammo sales because of the extra costs to the state for regulation and oversight.

The Second Amendment says, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." No mention of ammo. The strict constructionists on the Supreme Court in other rulings have said, basically, if it’s not identified explicitly, then it’s not covered.

So, whether ammo is covered would be an interesting case to bring. And then there’s the decision to ignore the main premise of the Amendment: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State. Given such a militia, it would have an armory, and odds are the ammo would be stored in the armory, along with the guns.

And in conclusion, there’s the NRA. It’s been morally bankrupt for years. It was also near financial bankruptcy in 2021, filed, but was denied.

It tried to recover by severe cost cutting. But what did it chose to cut? Many of its core programs, including education and training, field services, law enforcement initiatives and recreational shooting. In other words, the very heart of its mission.

As of this month, it’s under new management. It would be great if it could take some of the load off our state’s expenses, such as for education, but I don’t think we can count on it.

John H. Terrell