Gun hysteria manufactured by the anti-gun lobbyists, the media, and people who have had contact with gun violence seems the order of the day every time one of these shootings takes place. Keep in mind that each one of these mass murders was committed by a criminal. Murders, taking a firearm onto school grounds, shooting most firearms within city limits, committing a crime using a firearm, all of these are criminal offenses.

I agree with Bud Wright that all rights have boundaries; they also imply a degree of responsibility to our fellow citizens to protect those rights and to observe them for everybody else.

You also have to remember that the basic rights as defined in our “Bill of Rights” were negotiated by the representatives of the states during the ratifying convention for the U. S. Constitution. They were conditions stipulated as necessary for states to preserve these rights for the citizens as protections from the government. For the government to attempt to change them now in the face of their inability to provide a safe environment for the citizens to live is ludicrous.

Over the many years since this country was started there have been instances where each of these rights has been challenged but, they have been upheld because they are our basic civil rights, they have been added to when a basic civil right was not being protected. They are our protection from our government interfering with our freedom, our life, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness.

When the 2nd Amendment was written a black powder musket was state of the art firearm, and as firearms progressed folks who used them for hunting and in the military obtained more up to date modern weapons. Why do I think this is OK, let’s take a look at the 2nd amendment “In order to maintain a well-regulated militia,” I read that to mean that I should keep a state of the art military grade weapon however, fully automatic firearms require a special permit and registration, the permits are expensive, the registration process is cumbersome, very time consuming, and requires a serious background check, which you have to pay for.

I see only one reason for a productive law abiding US Citizen to have an assault style weapon in the gun case, they want it and it is their right to have it, just in case they are called up by the militia, which can happen in a national emergency. I also see only one reason for the government to remove our right to bear arms — to control us.

Just think how good it would be for our government to do its job.

WILLIAM STINSON
Edenton