Letters 1-19-2013

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Gun, pot laws

Gun, pot laws

Armed and loaded?

I watch with amusement the growing cacophony of Kona voices decrying private gun ownership and in opposition to the new gun range.

How about the glaring loophole that causes the County of Hawaii to allow ownership of firearms by those who are holders of record of a medical marijuana permit?

If these thousands of permitees are stating on their BATF Form 4473s that they do not use, nor are they addicted to marijuana, while holding a medical permit, they are lying on a federal form.

If they admit to use, they should not be allowed to own firearms.

How about if the WHT publishes an FOIA interactive map that gives us the names and locations of all medical marijuana holders who are also registered firearms owners? It’s just so we can feel safe.

Robert Issac

Captain Cook

Editor’s note: Names of those who register firearms in Hawaii are not public record. Medical records of individuals are federally protected information and also not public record.

Congress

Stop sausage making

This Congress ranks below cockroaches and for good reason.

It is mired down with dirty tricks, corruption and self-serving deal making. A lot of this mess could be vastly improved by a common sense small change in the rules.

All they would have to do is stipulate that only amendments that are directly relevant to a bill would be allowed. This would eliminate so much waste and pork barrel spending, not to mention just plain craziness.

Why do we never hear about such a revision? Because they all like to play this sickening little game. We should pressure our “representatives” to make this change.

Dale Sarver

Holualoa

Kealakekua Bay

A different place now

I would like to thank the Department of Land and Natural Resources for its efforts at Kealakekua Bay.

Two days of heavy presence, 200 feet of fence and a padlock got the job done. Sad to say that it took a decade to start what turned out to be a week’s work.

Napoopoo is a residential community again, wonderful. Swimmers in the bay don’t have to smell and taste engine exhaust products in the water (except near the monument). More cars now park near the start of the monument trail, reducing the traffic on narrow Napoopoo Road; presumably tourist paddlers have become hikers.

On the down side, the DNLR’s plans are deliberately opaque, seemingly justified by a naive straw man argument lacking credibility.

Where is the transparency in government?

Where are the public meetings and discussion on the future of Kealakekua Bay?

Unilateral action to enforce the law is one thing, unilateral management planning is another thing altogether.

Robert Flatt

Captain Cook