To the editor:
I have read some letters here on both sides of the issue and one I felt was somewhat critical of County Commissioner Ben Grimsley, I, for one, commend Grimsley’s courage.
One thing I find whenever the topic of gun control and the 2nd Amendment comes up is a tons of really serious misinformation. I thought I would chime in to not only emphatically support Becker County becoming a 2nd Amendment sanctuary but try to help dispel some of the misinformation and misdirection.
One of the things anti-gun rights folks will pull out right away is “you don’t need that to hunt” the thing is this, the 2nd Amendment has not one single thing to do with hunting, nothing at all, as for gun rights pro and con hunting is a non-issue, no wants to take it away and it has nothing to do with defending the 2nd Amendment.
The next one is “why do you need that (names a type of gun, usually incorrectly)?" This one is honestly very simple: this is America and no one needs an Escalade or a huge house or toaster or even a fancy can opener, they WANT them. And they are FREE to get them if they can afford them.
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The next area of trouble we get into which makes so many of us passionate about this is that we all really want the same things: safety for our family, our freedom, our things we wanted and got. The part where misinformation plays a role is the misunderstanding about some simple facts. It has been proven beyond certainty that less gun regulation leading to more citizens being armed reduces crime exponentially. In the U.S., 19 out of 20 of the highest crime cities are Democrat run cities with strict gun regulation. Bad shootings almost always occur in gun free zones where criminals know they are the only ones armed and no one will hurt them. I worked at a school for several years and I was involved in safety planning there; it was close to unanimous amongst those of us serious about it and those that were members on law enforcement that the best thing we could have done was arm those of us capable and replace the gun-free-zone sign with one reading “we are armed, we will fight back.”. The simple fact is the police are about six-12 minutes away and most mass shootings end in less than five.
Misinformation continues down the path to the point of absurd with the lack of understanding of guns themselves, I have some of my own extended family say things “can’t we just ban the ones that shoot out thousands of bullets in a few seconds?” Truth is, anything close to that preposterous definition is extremely regulated and very hard to get. For what it’s worth, most mass shootings are committed with a hand gun anyway. The harsh reality is no criminal set on murdering people has any interest in obeying any law anyway so only those who would stop him are affected by laws.
When you dig into the 2nd Amendment itself, it's abundantly clear that the intent was for you to remain unfettered in your efforts to protect what you had earned and made in the U.S. and, most of all, to protect against a tyrannical government. In reality, any gun control law new or existing is all unconstitutional based on the simple wording “shall not be infringed” beyond that if you cannot see how tyrannical governments come to pass and how they slowly take over by taking away one freedom at a time. Take a good hard look at our government right now and then go read about the time in Germany leading up to Hitler’s reign; there are terrifying parallels.
There is so much more but the bottom line is anyone out there is far safer with law abiding legally armed citizens around them. In these times I feel like we need to do anything we can to stand up for what our forefathers built and make a statement to the government that we won’t tolerate having it taken away.
