LETTER: Rights the most important thing

To the editor:

Why limit this debate to guns? Religion isn’t safe either. Christianity engaged in crusades, Judaism faced genocide, and Islam wages jihad. It is no wonder that dictators ban the practice of religion in the same breath they ban firearms. Why do you think the U.S. Constitution gave us the freedom to choose our religion, to speak publicly, and to carry a gun.

When we take freedom from the people and impart to government the obligations of civilization we make a master of the servant. Institutionalized welfare poisons individual compassion as it gives justification to the denial of our obligations. Legislative bodies confine choice thereby draining from change the potential of growth. Government must increase individual stature through freedom and accountability, not increase its collective girth through slavery and appeasement.

An obese government suits only timid people who content themselves with tasty food and colorful clothes. Give me a free society where government enforces accountability, not limits choice.

Mark Wilkinson