Letter of the Week
This week's letter of the week comes in a response to our recent story about the proliferation of concealed handgun permits and the sheriff's refusal to release the identity of permit holders. Thanks for the letter, R.T. We'll promise to keep the safety on.
Your story about the number of handguns in Deschutes County illustrated a conundrum about our obsession with guns. It is estimated that Americans own a half billion guns. Yet this has not stopped our government from spying on us, tapping our phones, intercepting our emails, opening our snail mail, and trashing Habeas Corpus rights - all in the interests of "security." Conservative Supreme Court Justices like Antonin Scalia are willing to allow the Constitution to be subverted by giving Bush the right to decide when to suspend Habeas Corpus, the foundation document of our democracy: every person accused of a crime has the right to stand in a court of law and defend him or herself.
The NRA, that most stalwart and relentless gun lobby has spent millions electing politicians like Bush and other enablers who have imposed a "velvet" police state on the American people. All this time the NRA has been a docile lap dog of the Bush Administration while proclaiming that it is protecting our 2nd Amendment gun rights. It doesn't seem to occur to these stalwarts that a government that can suspend Habeas Corpus at will, can also do the same to the 2nd Amendment. Where has the NRA been in protesting this repressive government intrusion on our freedoms? My guess is that if and when there is ever a shooting war between a repressive government and those of us who own those half billion guns, the NRA will side with the repressive government. I would like any NRA member out there to prove me wrong. It would give me hope.
R.T.Tihista, Bend
