Maine’s campaign for “constitutional carry” is even worse than the ones down south, where they are trying to gain approval of concealed carry on college and public school campuses and in public or religious buildings.

At least with those, a person needs a personality check and safety instructions, however cursory this may be, before being granted legal permission to carry a deadly weapon. To even consider allowing anyone off the street to carry loaded weapons with no restrictions takes us back to the days of the Wild West without the marshal in town.

The National Rifle Association justifies its opposition to any form of weapons control on the grounds that it is up against an incremental plot to take away all firearms from everyone not wearing a uniform. That is nonsense. The NRA doesn’t even allow operable weapons to be carried at its own national convention and it wants to outlaw kids carrying a water pistol near schools.

Let’s face it. The NRA’s main goal is to promote the profits from selling more and more firearms to macho guys and gals who believe any form of control for the public safety is a threat to their constitutional rights.

Harvey Versteeg

Augusta