The dreadful massacre at Sandy Hook has resulted in much posturing and debate about the gun rights afforded every citizen so clearly in the Second Amendment.
I urge the president to be very careful as he decides what measures to take in response. Do not awaken the sleeping giant.
While a direct attack on guns will score political points in some circles. It does little to address the root cause. Guns are not the villain. The villain is the villain. The gun he used was simply the weapon of convenience. Would the lack of a gun have caused the monster to abandon his evil motive? If only that we’re so.
We don’t have a gun problem. We have a cultural problem. What is the president doing to mitigate that?
The ever-darkening shadow of evil in our culture that fosters the existence of such men was unknown 200 years ago. Our current state would be a great disappointment to our forefathers who penned the Constitution and its amendments.
What unfolds before us now is the intended result of a great ideological shift, a growing departure from the hopefulness and goodness that founded and powered our great country. The wholesome vision of our forefathers is being ravaged by evil itself. Godless activists flitter around like puppets on string, willingly swapping honor, personal restraint, character and human dignity, for the worst that mankind can conjure. All the while they wish it not just for themselves, but for the rest of us, too.
I fear that if we do not stand at this late hour, we shall surely fall.
Every gun owner I know is on high alert and acutely aware of the media and rhetorical effort to paint the Second Amendment as simply a hunter’s right, easily fulfilled with a single-shot squirrel gun, and a well-taxed, $10 bullet.
Gun ownership is a right, provided to me and my fellow citizens, to supplement any action we must take to protect ourselves against squirrels of every kind, or a tyrannical government deluded into thinking that they are in charge, and We The People are merely citizen-subjects who must pick up the tab.
Mr. President, we are not your subjects! You, sir, are not our king.
As a Christian, veteran, business owner, taxpayer, citizen, father, grandfather, neighbor and patriot, I insist that no “executive order” be issued that seeks to use slight-of-hand or political trickery to circumvent or redefine my right to keep and bear arms as I so choose. My firearm may be concealed, but my commitment to protect my family, myself, my rights and my property will not be hidden, nor will it be surrendered willingly.
If anyone wishes to change the law, put it to the people openly. If the question is honest, you will fi nd that the majority is not with the president. If I am wrong, so be it. We have slipped further than I thought.
Nonetheless, as a veteran I pledged my life to defend, protect and uphold the Constitution. Nothing, Mr.
President, has changed.
RONALD “CORKY” BAKER
Summers
Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/15/2013