Letter to the Editor

Freedom to arm terrorists and criminals

Tue, 09/13/2016 - 7:15am

Dear Editor:

We must thank Linc Sample for enlightening us as to the definition of "infringed." Perhaps he can also inform us of the meaning of "well regulated."

Seriously, this discussion is not so much about the meaning of the Constitution. Many gun owners have said that the only way they would give up their guns is when they are pried from their "cold dead hands." Clearly, people who make statements of this sort have no respect for the Constitution, our laws, and our democratically representative government. Any reference to the Constitution is a mere convenience to the gun lobby as it moves to protect its market among the criminal element.

The National Rifle Association and the gun manufacturers they represent has been spewing its own narrow interpretation of the Second Amendment since the take over of the NRA (Not Responsible Armorers) by gun manufacturers in the 1970s.

We Americans are dealing with a group of people who have been bamboozled into thinking that their right to bear arms is an unlimited and absolute right. That their right to bear arms is privileged above all our other rights. Even our right to live.

With all freedoms there are limits and with all rights there are responsibilities. The NRA ignores this concept completely and as a result over 30,000 people; mostly innocent bystanders, die each year.

This has worked out very well for the gun manufacturers, they profit equally from the sale of guns to the "law abiding" citizens as to criminals and terrorists. The NRA makes a big ballyhoo about training citizens and police in gun safety at their front door while leaving the back door open for the sale of weapons to anyone with the cash.

Where the NRA has shirked its responsibility to the American public, it is only reasonable that we, the American public, stand up to this well-funded lobby and insist that each and every person who wishes to obtain a weapon is indeed a "law abiding citizen."

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay