Watch where you point that pen, Molton

I'll admit to the occasional forced chuckle when I read the weekly “Molton” cartoon. Usually I'm laughing because the artist has attacked a social or political demographic with which I disagree with an awkward, amateurish version of middle school humor. How different it felt when I opened the Jan. 30 Mountain Xpress to find, this […]

It’s time for legitimate gun research

Ray Shamlin states in his Jan. 2 letter, “Is Gun Control the Answer?” that, “From research we know that gun control is not the answer.” We know no such thing from research, because research means developing a hypothesis, collecting data to test the hypothesis, and then analyzing the data. And that has not been seriously […]

Arming Americans won’t make us safer

The Jan. 2 letter by Ray Shamlin, “Is Gun Control the Answer?” misses the point. No, controlling guns (especially semi-automatic and automatic weapons) does not help the mentally ill, but it does remove the means by which they can conduct such severe and sadistic massacres on our children. He reiterates the same old story as […]

Ending gun shows on city property faces legal complicati­ons

An assertion by Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell that the city’s ordinance banning firearms on city property should mean an end to gun shows here is unlikely to hinder this weekend’s show at the WNC Agricultural Center. State law restricts localities’ ability to regulate or prohibit gun shows, and city staff are currently looking into the implications of those rules.