Editor,

There was another article on guns in The Tidewater News last Wednesday. It was written by a guest writer from another area that has a much different understanding of the reason for our Second Amendment rights than I do. He opened his article by citing the speed at which the government in New Zealand responded to the mosque shooting in Christ Church recently. He thought the government’s actions were right on target and should be adopted by all governments everywhere, especially here in our United States of America.

I would like to remind him that it did not take Adolph Hitler long to disarm the German citizens after he was elected the head of Germany’s government. Fidel Castro confiscated all the guns of the Cuban people after he overpowered President [Fulgencio] Batista. It did not take Hugo Chavez long to disarm the Venezuelan people and now look at them — and the helplessness they are experiencing under [Nicolas] Maduro, who is also a Socialist leader. Australia outlawed guns and is still experiencing gun deaths caused by bad people. Bad people will ALWAYS find a weapon to hurt people. You can search the history books and find many other instances where governments have disarmed their citizenry and then proceeded to oppress them.

It was because of an armed citizenry that George Washington was able to form a ragtag army that was able to throw off the tyranny of the British government and form this new nation called the United States of America.

Our founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution, not so we could keep a small caliber rifle or shotgun for hunting squirrels, but that we could have the best arms available to protect ourselves from a government that might go bad.

The Second Amendment states that we have the right to keep and bear arms and that right shall NOT be infringed (hampered). No amendment to the Constitution should be changed on a whim! The Second Amendment is one that we should vigorously protect. A Constitutional Convention is hard to convene and that is a good thing.

With the Democratic Party rapidly going to the far left and actually espousing the Socialistic agenda being touted by some newly elected Congressional representatives, we need to be on the constant alert! They do not hide the fact that they are coming after your guns. They see your guns as an obstacle to their agenda that they have in mind for you!

Take a look at other inanimate objects that are the cause of death of many people. Automobiles can be as deadly as guns, knives, baseball bats or axes, but it takes a human being to activate any of them to do harm. There is not a movement that I know of that is actively trying to take any of these away from you except guns.

Society needs to address the human condition that harbors the deadly intent that we see vented against innocent people all over the world. We need to find a way to identify and sort out those people who would do harm to others and put them away. We are letting people from other lands into our country that blatantly tell us they will kill us. We should believe what they say and keep them out. God has appointed governments to be formed for the purpose of protecting the citizens. Let us hold them to be true to their tasks and not take our God-given rights away from us.

J. Edward Howell Jr.
Franklin