BULL'S-EYE
Re: 'Sympathy for the Devils" by Scott Harrell (Oct. 22-28)
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Scott Harrell's article on the Suncoast Gun Show. The front-page tease ("Scott Visits Gun Nut Hell and Finds No Evil") was designed to rile, and I have to admit I would not have picked up a copy of the paper if not for that, but the article was pretty good.
The title chosen by the editor still seems to paint people attending gun shows as "devils." But I am not surprised to find an editorial slant in your paper. I am surprised to find a fair and balanced piece of reporting.
Scott did a good job of not pushing one agenda or the other. He in fact maintained the kind of journalistic impartiality one hopes to find in the St Pete (or New York) Times, and so often does not. The only opinion he offered is that he considers guns to be ugly.
I believe he is wrong in the characterization of the "vicious circle" he details near the end of the piece. It is not about buying the biggest gun, but about buying a gun that fits. A gun should fit your hand the way a shoe should fit your foot. Bigger is not always better, and any decent instructor should cover how to select a firearm.
One bit of the article was factually inaccurate. If you take a class that meets the criteria spelled out in the law, pass the background check — this covers felonies, violence, mental illness, etc. — and pay the fees, in Florida you WILL get a permit. Not "probably," as he states. The law says if the application meets the conditions spelled out, a permit "shall" be issued. In states where some bureaucrat has discretion, friendship, cronyism and racism tend to rule who does and does not get a permit.)
—Debra Blatnik
St. Petersburg
As a lifetime member of the NRA, I find I must defend my membership from time to time (and sometimes with gusto!) to the people I know. Although not as rabid a member as some at the top of the organization, I believe guns have their place in this society. As with most things, a balance must be reached. And speaking of balance, thank you for a balanced article on this difficult subject. It was fair.
—Jim Charles
Tampa
HELLHOUND ON OUR TRAIL
Re: Music Menu item by Eric Snider (Nov. 5-11)
Eric Snider ended his recent blurb on the Tishamingo concert by opining, "now if we only knew what Tishamingo meant." If Mr. Snider is truly agonizing over this hole in his encylopedic knowledge of all things (the basic job requirement for any music critic), then I recommend Google.com.
Historic Tishamingo County, of the Mississippi Territory, now lies in the state of Oklahoma. This simple fact, however, is only a part of the story.
Eric Snider (affectionately known as "Snider-than-thou") is widely known for his ability to infuse any piece of writing with a sense of how vastly underinformed and underdeveloped are the sensibilities of us the reading public. There could be no chance that this music critic par excellence missed the Coen brother's American history/bluegrass epic O Brother Where Art Thou. He who pens so eloquently regarding the intricacies of a million genres surely could not have missed the Robert Johnson-esque character in that film, the one who sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for his guitar chops — the one whose first line in that film was, "You folks goin' past Tishamingo?"
— Jesse Carter
Tampa
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2003.