I would like to respond to the three letters printed in the March 28 edition en mas.

First, in the spirit of disclosure, I am an endowment member of NRA, and generally a political conservative (which in actuality means that I expect the programs that my tax money fund do what they are advertised to do).

From a pure logic perspective: More “gun laws” are a waste of ink because prosecutors do not enforce the ones they have. It is insanity to continue doing the same thing (blaming “easy access to guns” by law abiding citizens) and expecting different results (reduced violence). – adapted from Albert Einstein.

We do not live in a Democracy. (We do not initiate and vote on every proposal.) We live in a Constitutional Republic, if we can keep it. (We elect representatives who, supposedly, legislate on our behalf, again supposedly, according to the Law of the Land – the U.S. Constitution.)

I will let medicine and genetics remind you that the human brain is not at “full reasoning capacity” until about 25 years of age.

I can remember my beliefs about right and wrong (and right and left) in [my teen years] and how things ought to work. Perhaps we should follow the car rental industry in moving the smoking, drinking, the military draft, and voting age to 25 as well?

Fifteen year olds generally do not have the funding to execute rallies on this scale, therefore I must assume some other source of funding for the logistics (permits, transportation, printing, etc)

Schools that cannot find funds for normal operation and maintenance were able to afford busing to the rallies.

History lesson: 1) In 1787 Congress was well aware of “multi-shot” firearms – Duck’s foot, Pepper box, and, yes, towed weapons of multi-barreled designs. 2) The military musket was not the best of firearms available (a British musketeer was an excellent shot if he could hit a target the size of a sheet of plywood at 100 yards). We used rifled arms against it in our wars with Britain. 3) The Militia Act defined the militias as being composed of “All Able-bodied White Males” (this would have included those who had “paid their debt to society” [A.K.A. former felons] while excluding women and persons of color); so much for “progressivism”. 4) Machine guns have been virtually outlawed since 1934 and no legally held automatic firearm has ever been used to commit a felony in the U.S. 5) The AR-15 has NEVER been a general issue infantry weapon. Its first use was by Air Police, then by a few who could get one, in Viet Nam. The M-16 family was a derivative of this Armalite Rifle Company (a division of Fairchild Aircraft Company, I believe.) Those who wrote and signed the Constitution had clear memories of governmental bad behavior and included the 2nd amendment to protect the rest of the constitution. And to those who think that “citizens” stand no chance against the “trained, professional military” I say: First, we (all service-members) swore an oath to “support, uphold, and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”; not a government gone bad, therefore I suspect that if and when rebellion is needed the military will either stand aside (as in the former Soviet Union) or stand with us.

There is a confluence of personal interests, not a conspiracy, to eliminate private ownership of firearms. See “Any town…” Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, and the organizations they own, control (or simply control by funding them) etc. for insight into who is funding anti-gun activities.

An ignorant (poorly educated), financially dependent mass of people is easier to control.

Give me the children and I will have the country. (paraphrased from Adolph Hitler)

By all means, continue expressing your opinions, considered or otherwise, I stood fire-watch for four years (active) so you and I could do so. I look forward to many conversations because of those rights. Don’t expect me to give up my rights because I don’t parrot your opinion.

Peace be with you,

Everett Puterbaugh