Armed civilian helped save lives in Arizona Re: "Democrats move to limit guns, threatening language in shooting's wake," Jan. 11

Representatives Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., and Robert Brady, D-Pa., are leaving out the facts. Joe Zamudio, a law-abiding, gun-carrying civilian, helped stop Jared Loughner. Mr. Zamudio tackled Loughner while he was reloading.

While many people were running away from the shots, Zamudio ran toward them because, in part, he was armed. Guns helped save the lives of others in Arizona. The fact is that the police cannot be everywhere. In most cases, they arrive at the scene minutes after a shooting has been committed.

Representatives should carefully examine all of the facts, no matter how politically inconvenient they may be, before writing any legislation.

Michael Soh

Alexandria

Krugman himself endangers rational discourse

Re: "Paul Krugman's totalitarian temptation," editorial, Jan. 11

Good editorial!

I don't read the New York Times because it is no longer the fair and factual newspaper that it once was years ago. Now it is the playpen of screwballs such as Paul Krugman, who preach their message of hate for Americans who cannot accept their irrational opinion of people they believe are responsible for the evils and injustices that exist in today's society.

Krugman neither understands nor cares about the harm he himself is causing to the rational discourse on important issues by his self-serving denigration of individuals he alone has concluded are at fault.

John Klein

Sterling

American companies need somebody on their side

 Re: "U.S. embassies become trade missions for Boeing," Jan. 6

Timothy P. Carney launches a dangerous criticism of U.S. commercial diplomacy in his recent column. His argument that it is somehow inappropriate for American diplomats to support U.S. aerospace exports -- when diplomats from European countries and other trade competitors consider such sales a priority -- would leave the 12 million American workers employed by the civil aviation industry at a marked disadvantage in the global marketplace.

Further, his suggestion that loan guarantees from the U.S. Export-Import Bank represent a subsidy is erroneous. Far from being a drain on the U.S. Treasury, the bank is a self-sustaining agency that has returned billions of dollars to the U.S. taxpayer since its establishment. In 2009, the bank approved nearly 2,500 transactions to help finance export shipments by U.S. small businesses, representing 88 percent of all bank transactions.

To succeed in today's global economy, U.S. companies large and small need American diplomats and the Ex-Im Bank on their side.

Myron Brilliant

Senior vice president for international affairs,

U.S. Chamber of Commerce