Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A recent letter in these pages criticized a vote I took on House Joint Resolution 40 (“Questions Rep. Wittman’s vote,” Phil Olekszyk, Feb. 9 Readers Write). That resolution undid a rule enacted by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the final days of President Obama’s term relating to implementation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the system used for checks during gun purchases. 

I believe that we should do everything possible to keep guns out of the hands of those with the propensity to do harm. That is why I support the current federal law that states a person is prohibited from buying a gun for life if they have been adjudicated as “a mental defective” or “committed to a mental institution.”

But we must ensure that other efforts do not infringe upon your Constitutional rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms and the right to due process of law; nor should...