To the Editor:

Sorry, I have to reply to three things in the Jan. 6 issue of North Country This Week.

In response to "Mass shootings" in the Sound Off section: "Am I really safer with two or more people shooting rather than one?" Yes. When a citizen stops a mass shooting, the average number of people killed is 2.33, but when people wait for the police to show up, the average number of people killed in mass shootings is 14.29. Details upon request or just Google those numbers.

I see that a U.S. Border Patrol drug dog alerted in Canton, and drugs were found. That is a story that gets printed because something happened. How many times does a dog alert, and no drugs were found? That's not a story, but someone had their 4th Amendment right abrogated...by mistake.

How often does this happen? Is anyone keeping track of how good these dogs are? The Border Patrol works for us -- we should be able to get these numbers. We won't, because it's not in their interest to keep records.

A toddler died by being crushed underneath a piece of furniture that fell on them. That's a tragedy. A horrible tragedy. What is Senator Patty Ritchie's natural reaction? To pass a law, of course. Because of course a law would have saved that child's life. Yet how many children are killed by the war on drugs?

Perhaps the senator's time in Albany would be better spent trying to get rid of laws rather than creating new ones?

Why do people try freedom last, after everything else has failed?

Russell Nelson

Potsdam