Holthouse touched on his perilous encounter with a rap group without recounting his response to it, which this reader remembers quite well. Surprised and terrified when his negative review of a record in a genre whose lyrics consist largely of violent threats delivered by violent individuals elicited just such threats by just such individuals, he wrote a pathetic article informing them that he had surrounded himself with friends and if his antagonists were mean to him, they'd tell.
This suggests that proper armament for Holthouse is not a pistol but a cell phone -- into which, should his snippiness ever get him in trouble again, he can squeal piteously and hope the gendarmerie arrive in time to save his cringing neck.
The rest of Dave Vaughn's former students, who are hardly the d'class' psychotics depicted in the contemptuous artwork accompanying Holthouse's piece, can take care of ourselves -- and I have every confidence we will do so responsibly.
Paul W. Green
Tempe
"I'm not a crack shot..." are probably the most accurate words Holthouse used in his article, "Hollow Points," in the March 2 issue. I just don't know whether he was referring to his shooting or his reporting.
First, he got the marksmanship qualification for a CCW permit wrong. It is 10 shots, five from 15 feet and five from 30 feet, with seven of 10 in the torso scoring-ring needed to pass. According to Holthouse, the "far harder" course he took required 20 shots from the same distances with 15 needed to pass. That's a little more difficult but not much; if you can do one you can probably do the other.
Where Holthouse really missed the target were his conclusions about the adequacy of the course. The purposes of the CCW course are to teach: 1) the awesome responsibility of carrying and using a deadly weapon, 2) the legalities and realities of self-defense with a firearm, and 3) the basics of tactics and marksmanship in a defensive situation. From his account, it sounds as if the Urban Firearms Institute tried to do that. Holthouse just wasn't paying attention. He was much more interested in finding fault with the law, the course, the instructors and students, and the concept of people being allowed to carry a gun for self-defense. Obviously this is why Holthouse took the course, since he thinks he already knows everything about using a firearm.
Before Holthouse writes off Arizona's CCW course as woefully inadequate, he might be interested in knowing that of the 43 states that issue some form of CCW permit, Arizona is one of the few that requires any marksmanship or classroom training at all. I take some comfort in that, especially if we're going to let Holthouse carry a gun.
Joe Carter
Phoenix
Easy Rider
As a relatively new resident to Phoenix, I am seriously and surprisingly impressed with the positive attitude and forward thinking of the population of Phoenix as far as the Transit 2000 transit issue ("Traffic Thicket," Laura Laughlin, March 9). In many ways, the response was impressive and even, well, damned sophisticated.
As an ex-Southern Californian, I had witnessed many decades of residents' slow, drag-foot response to transit issues until they hadto vote in their light-rail system, which incidentally became hugely successful.
When the light rails become operative in another decade, the doubled population of Phoenix will be ready, and this nation's sixth-largest city will undoubtedly have become this nation's fourth-largest city.
When you see some old fool on the train in 10 years carrying a sign "I told you so!" it will be me.
And we'll be flying by the naysayers stuck in gridlock, all blindly led by the Arizona Republic's "Opinions" darling, Roy Miller, a member of the so-called free-market Goldwater Institute Phoenix think tank (an oxymoron if there ever was one). May this Grand Butt-Plugger roll up a steel train rail and stick it where the sun don't shine.
Robert H. Stone
Phoenix
