Editor:

We had this discussion about guns over 200 years ago, and after 25,000 men were killed and another 25,000 wounded (missing arms and legs), we the American people won the right to own arms equal to or superior to our enemies, be they from abroad, within or mentally disturbed.

This battle was the Revolutionary War, which was started not only with the Boston Tea Party when King George of England tried to force tax on us, but also with the restriction of the size of firearms. He said the Americans would only be able to own small caliber rifles called squirrel guns, while the enemies, the British Soldiers, carried the latest and most advanced military guns of the day.

We won that war, but again in 1812, the British again tried to enslave us and started the War of 1812.  Andrew Jackson, mostly with a smaller force of private citizens with their own guns, again defeated the British near New Orleans.

This is what the Second Amendment of the Constitution is about. During the War of 1812 near New Orleans, another 20,000 Americans died to defend our rights. Why let half a dozen deranged people change the rights of over 300 million Americans to own or not to own the type of firearms they wish to defend themselves, their families or their country? Do we think insurrection couldn’t happen here? Anything is possible.

Just two years ago, did Gaddafi think there was a possibility that he would lose his power and his life in Libya? And by the way, the guns the people of Libya used to free themselves from Gaddafi were assault rifles.

Did President Assad of Syria ever dream that his end would be near? He and his father before him ruled Syria with what he called an iron fist. He used his military to bully and suppress the Syrian people. Because the Syrian people have and were able to obtain AK-47 assault rifles, they are about to end his cruel regime. This couldn’t happen if all they had were hunting rifles.

Our forefathers did not fight wars just so they would not have to pay a tea tax; it was for all the rights [eventually written into] the Constitution, and especially the Second Amendment, giving us the right to own the gun of our choice — not the type of gun that is dictated to us.

There are so many ways any person with the slightest deranged thinking could harm people and in so many different places. Trying to control assault rifles would do nothing more than take another part of our freedom away. It’s not a question of whether we need assault rifles; it’s our right as Americans to own them. They are an excellent gun to have fun with, target practicing at the thousands of gun ranges in America, and after that, put away in your gun safe just in case.

Thomas Daly
Aspen