Letter to the Editor:

Two years ago, Joe Pitts was elected to his current term in Congress, and John Lawrence was elected state representative. Weeks later, on December 14, 2012, a crazed gunman massacred twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

Letters this week in the Chester County Press criticized Lawrence for his vote to let the NRA sue local communities, but Pitts also recently voted in ways that will assure more gun tragedies. Pitts is a darling of the gun lobby, which rallied Congress to react to this tragedy heroically. To protect children from crazed gunmen? No – to protect sales of the guns from background checks. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence twice rated Pitts at 0 percent for his lifetime voting record.

As recently as July of this year, he voted to block enforcement of existing gun laws in Washington, D.C. – a city plagued by gun violence. With the help of lawmakers like Pitts, military-style assault weapons continue to be available in the United States to anyone willing to pay. Nearly two years after Newtown, felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill can walk into a gun show, flea market or even log on to the Internet and buy weapons from unlicensed sellers.

In fact, 40 percent of the guns purchased in America are purchased without a background check. The murderously insane are apparently an important market for these business interests. Both Pitts and Lawrence are trying to be reelected this November. If voters can deny them their bids, perhaps we’ll see a few less mass shootings at schools in the future.

James G. Lertola

London Grove Township