Columnist off target once again

To the editor,

Once again, columnist Daniel Grota has it all wrong. Since when does a committed leftist like Mr. Grota have an issue with the state setting policy? Only when it’s setting a policy he disagrees with. Most people understand institutions of higher learning are mostly staffed with intolerant liberals, so concealed carry will never be implemented at the university level, it has to be implemented at the state level. Mr. Grota has already shown his anti-gun bias in prior columns, so it’s not surprising he’s against concealed carry on campus. Apparently that oath he took to defend the Constitution meant nothing to him.

But here are the facts. Virtually every mass shooting in the past 50 years has been in a gun free zone. There are a number of school districts and universities that have armed staff or allow concealed carry. When was the last time you heard of a mass shooting there? Every time a state made “shall issue” the law, there were howls of wild west shootouts becoming the norm. It never happened. What did happen was the murder and crime rates went down. The only places you hear about high murder rates today are in areas with draconian gun laws, like Chicago, Washington D.C. and Baltimore. I still have the Post 9/11 GI Bill to use and I would be totally comfortable with concealed carry on campus. In fact, it would make me feel safer.

As a pilot and a retired C-130 loadmaster with over 5,000 hours, I take issue with his appalling level of ignorance concerning aircraft. Cabin pressure in an airliner is 8,000 feet above sea level. It is not “pressurized to ground level atmosphere.” To use the term “ground level atmosphere” is meaningless because that can be anywhere from sea level to 29,000 feet. And one bullet piercing the cabin wall would not cause a violent decompression, except in the movies. You wouldn’t even notice the effect of one bullet in the cabin wall.

I have perused Mr. Grota’s columns over the years and it’s pretty obvious he’s a committed leftist who parrots the Democratic Party line to a “T.” His views do not represent those of most veterans, myself included.

Erik Heiker

Wasilla