Free speech and the right to bear arms

In response to James Morley’s letter to the editor “Unregulated gun ownership impedes democracy,” after reading this article I was simply at a loss for words (which I intend to make up for now).

Has Mr. Morley ever read any of the founding father’s commentaries on the second amendment? Visionary men like Jefferson and Madison, who knew all to well the dangers of a government gone amok, and who made it abundantly clear that the reason for the 2nd amendment, (part of our Bill of Rights) was needed firstly to protect us from tyranny.

This above all other rights is what preserves democracy, not impedes it.

For crying out loud, how someone could come up with a different conclusion, so vastly opposite of what this important right says, must have flunked history 101. This amendment, along with freedom of speech and the press is no less important than these other freedoms that Mr. Morley so fully enjoys.

And I am thankful that they are there as the law of the land so that people like Mr. Morley cannot trample a freedom that may not be important to him, but is important to me.

What Mr. Morley infers is that guns make us a more dangerous society, and they need even more draconian laws to prevent mayhem.

Well, I have a full carry permit and it took almost a year to get it in this state (ridiculous).

Everywhere you look in this country where gun laws are the toughest is where you find the most crime. This has been shown over and over again (10 times the amount of children have been killed in the last three years in Chicago than those who died in Newtown, the windy city having the toughest gun laws in the country).

And as far as safety goes, tell that to the people slaughtered in the Russian “revolution,” the Khmer rouge onslaught of the Cambodian people, the Holocaust, Dafur, and on and on it goes of people annihilated because they had no way to defend themselves.

Yes, the old adage is true: “When you outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have them.”

You have exercised your right to free speech by writing your article. Quit trying to stop my right to bear arms.

Jerald Berman
Warwick