Use this story to comment on the question of the week.

The recent shooting stories and the article on the total rejection by the National Rifle Association of any and all gun-control measures featured in the Register, in addition to the Virginia Tech massacre, bring to mind some interesting statistics in the April 21 Economist Magazine: Last year, there were about 14,000 killings by gunfire, plus another 16,000 suicides. Since the murder or John F. Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have been killed by using guns than have perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century.

On plan to pay for

Four months into the 110th Congress is too early to assign grades to the new Democratic majority -- but not too soon to remind lawmakers that most of their self-assigned tasks remain undone; that progress in the next few months on Social Security, immigration and lobbying reform is critical; and that this Congress will be judged on what it accomplished -- and on where it punted.

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Dear editor,