Congratulations to the students in Washington and across the country for standing up for common sense gun control.
I have been an avid hunter and fisherman all my life.
I have guns and I am not against owning guns.
However, the Supreme Courts 2008 decision in Columbia v. Heller, affirming a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms was not unconditional.
As Justice Scalia says (see pages 54 and 55), “like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…”
It is “… not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
There is ample justification in the totality of Scalia’s opinion to enable state and federal legislators to pass common-sense gun laws.
Why don’t they?
The influence of the NRA, thats why.
Ask state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege why he has a lifetime A rating with the NRA. See the Seattle Times article on March 7, “NRA money.”
Our own state legislature can’t even pass legislation to allow the state patrol to destroy confiscated weapons instead of selling them to gun dealers to put back on the market (“Legislature fails to pass bill,” Associated Press, March 13).
Is this common sense?
These students are pretty smart and they are going to be voting soon if not in November.
If you’re a legislator and you take money from the NRA, you might soon be walking the streets looking for work.
Look at the Seattle Times “NRA money” article and see where your representative stands.
I am limited in space so that’s all I have to say … for now.
Stan Riddle,
Sequim