LETTER: Now is the time to protect right to arms
Dear Editor,
Since 1776, the United States of America has been the model of freedom to the world. This country, founded by rebels with guns and a strong distaste for rules and taxes, affords us with freedoms only dreamt about by others. Many of those freedoms are taken for granted, overlooked or even miss-used. The right to bear arms is one of the most loved, hated and misunderstood of those freedoms.
Very few countries allow their citizens this freedom. As long as this is the “land of the free,” the right to bear arms must be protected.
The liberal media, socialist politicians and bleeding heart activists (most of which employ armed protection themselves) are waging a war to abolish this freedom for everyone else. Fortunately all of their arguments are invalid and most of the time idiotic.
The media love to, worldwide, front page, glorify any criminal with a gun. They become the cause of more gun violence because mass killings at schools with knives or cars barely make local news. Naturally guns become fame-seeker weapons of choice. The media love their quick-selling headlines (forget ethics) and the politicians love it because it champions their cause against the killer gun (Forget that they created these killer copy cats).
Yet with all their hype, the facts remain: Citizens with guns save more lives than criminals with guns take, every day. Football kills more kids in schools than guns do every year. Gun control does not keep guns from criminals, it only invites them to prey on the weak. However liberally interpreted, the Second Amendment was intended to guarantee the right of every American to protect himself, his country and his family with a gun.
The founding fathers gave their blood for our freedom. They knew we would need this right to preserve that freedom. Now, more than ever, we can see our freedoms eroding away and being replaced with taxes, regulations and government force, with a gun, if we disobey. Now is the most important time to defend our right to arms, our symbol and protector of freedom.
Sam Jacobs
Libertarian Party of Utah