Newsday letters to the editor for Friday, Nov. 30, 2018

Columnist Lane Filler repeats the tiresome, threadbare rhetoric of the anti-gunners that makes me ill [“Guns a health issue? Not to the NRA,” Nov. 14, Opinion].

Filler suggests that most firearm owners want their freedoms taken from them via laws for “universal background checks for gun purchases, training requirements for ownership, a ban on assault weapons and a ban on weapons possession or purchase for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders.”

I have been a member of the National Rifle Association since 1970. I do not support the laws Filler suggests. Many of my fellow NRA members don’t, either.

James G. Collins, Floral Park

Editor’s note: The writer is Long Island director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

A letter writer stated that “legislators never imagined” that birthright citizenship would be applied to children born under certain circumstances [“14th Amendment is misused,” Nov. 20].

Using that logic, I am sure that legislators who wrote the Second Amendment never imagined AK-15 assault rifles, bump stocks, 30-round magazines or other weapons of mass killings.

Richard Beckman, Merrick

Oyster Bay trial a waste of money

Very little surprises or shocks me any more about how government works or fails to. The very expensive trial of the Oyster Bay highway maintenance supervisor and his uncle, a former town official, was both arbitrary and capricious, but mostly ridiculous [“Oyster Bay official convicted,” News, Nov. 28].

For the Nassau district attorney to spend months and untold thousands of dollars to rectify a victimless “crime” — removing a tree and fixing a sidewalk — was preposterous.

What is glaringly obvious is the lack of judgment on what is really a theft of services. County resources were squandered in an imprudent decision to convict an Oyster Bay employee for coming to the aid of a resident with the trivial removal of a dead tree.

The district attorney’s budget should be reviewed. I know we all can sleep better at night knowing Nassau is vigilantly reducing alleged crimes at all costs.

Betty Gallagher, Great River

Levy fines for those who do not recycle

Brookhaven has decided that recycling is now dual-stream [“Recycle: Ready, set, sort,” News, Nov. 26].

Residents were informed via newspapers, cable TV, social media and radio. But do they know how many people do not use any of these? Is it too hard to send a postcard to tell residents about this change?

I estimate that only 15 percent of the residents on my street recycle at all. I see houses that put out two to five pails on garbage day with all sorts of combined trash, including recyclables. Why? Because they just don’t care and are lazy.

Recycling should be mandatory. There should be fines for not complying. Maybe then it would work. What are our elected officials doing? They are competent when tax time comes. Oh, and election time, also.

Tom Dee, Bellport

We have done our part for years. Brookhaven has to find a way now to enforce its recycling concept with those who refuse to do so. It is very noticeable when we observe noncompliers on pickup days.

It would not be out of the norm to assess fines, as in New York City.

It’s a shame that it would have to come to that, but saving our planet has got to become a priority.

John Lomaga, Shoreham

Not a merry safe way to move a tree

Although a driver was described as spreading cheer in Manhattan with a Christmas tree protruding through the roof of his “elf-sized Smart car,” he was not practicing safe driving [“Holiday spirit through the roof,” News, Nov. 28].

His line of sight on his right side seemed to be totally obscured. Perhaps it would have been safer for him, his fellow motorists and pedestrians to transport the tree on the roof.

Peter A. Rogers, Miller Place

Small acts can help the planet

Thanks for keeping climate change on our doorsteps [“Americans can lead on climate,” Editorial, Nov. 27].

Thanks, too, for suggestions on how we can help. The little things we do count. For example, not idling a vehicle while getting coffee at 7-Eleven, raking leaves instead of using blowers, turning lawns into meadows, pulling a plug, cutting back on packaging, choosing a smaller car, etc.

We can make a difference, each and every one of us.

Tom Stock, Babylon