From Ulonda Dietmeier, Monroe
To the editor:
The Second Amendment guarantees we citizens the right to bear arms. Why?
Thirteen small North American colonies cooperated to win the war of independence. Those citizens, those Revolutionary War veterans, needed arms. Their coasted settlements were infiltrated by wild animals from the surrounding wilderness. The Native Americans resented the loss of their farms, homes and hunting grounds. In every direction were the claims of various nations whose European wars spilled over into those American territories.
In that era, the oldest son inherited the estate. Younger members moved onto frontier government land -for minimum cash prices but maximum effort to tame the wilderness. Some, for example the Lincolns, migrated south after the Revolutionary War, from Massachusetts to Caroline, then Kentucky where Abe was born, and on north again - all in less than a century.
After the Revolutionary War, Congress honored George Washington and the other leaders with land in Kentucky, some of which had been legally purchased from England and defended for years by families such as the Boones, who removed to Tennessee and the Henson Irions to Spanish (now Missouri) territory. Irion, his son-in-law and family would make government land purchases and erect a cabin, dam and mill at (today's) McConnell, another southwest of Monroe (first mill, post office, stage stop in Clarno Township) and finally built Cadiz Village, all in the wilderness.
Yes, we still hunt for meat - in my family today - the same as generations of ancestors did. My uncle was a hunter-trapper and did target practice. One evening after milking, while driving the cows to pasture, he pulled out his pistol and fired at a post. He examined the damage. Few words were needed. It was an impressive lesson in the damage inflicted by a single bullet.
Population multiples. Wilderness dwindles. Millions reside in cities. Collectors, hunters and sportsman demand the right to own guns because they aren't the ones who are shooting school children, theater patrons or other innocent persons.
Wouldn't it be worth the time and cost (including the loss of some personal privacy for those with intellectual disabilities and mental health) to have background checks for every transfer of gun ownership, if it could save lives? Can't these who desire access to powerful, rapid-firing weapons of war help keep them out of the hands of potential killers by requiring background checks? Aren't we to be our brother's keepers?
To the editor:
The Second Amendment guarantees we citizens the right to bear arms. Why?
Thirteen small North American colonies cooperated to win the war of independence. Those citizens, those Revolutionary War veterans, needed arms. Their coasted settlements were infiltrated by wild animals from the surrounding wilderness. The Native Americans resented the loss of their farms, homes and hunting grounds. In every direction were the claims of various nations whose European wars spilled over into those American territories.
In that era, the oldest son inherited the estate. Younger members moved onto frontier government land -for minimum cash prices but maximum effort to tame the wilderness. Some, for example the Lincolns, migrated south after the Revolutionary War, from Massachusetts to Caroline, then Kentucky where Abe was born, and on north again - all in less than a century.
After the Revolutionary War, Congress honored George Washington and the other leaders with land in Kentucky, some of which had been legally purchased from England and defended for years by families such as the Boones, who removed to Tennessee and the Henson Irions to Spanish (now Missouri) territory. Irion, his son-in-law and family would make government land purchases and erect a cabin, dam and mill at (today's) McConnell, another southwest of Monroe (first mill, post office, stage stop in Clarno Township) and finally built Cadiz Village, all in the wilderness.
Yes, we still hunt for meat - in my family today - the same as generations of ancestors did. My uncle was a hunter-trapper and did target practice. One evening after milking, while driving the cows to pasture, he pulled out his pistol and fired at a post. He examined the damage. Few words were needed. It was an impressive lesson in the damage inflicted by a single bullet.
Population multiples. Wilderness dwindles. Millions reside in cities. Collectors, hunters and sportsman demand the right to own guns because they aren't the ones who are shooting school children, theater patrons or other innocent persons.
Wouldn't it be worth the time and cost (including the loss of some personal privacy for those with intellectual disabilities and mental health) to have background checks for every transfer of gun ownership, if it could save lives? Can't these who desire access to powerful, rapid-firing weapons of war help keep them out of the hands of potential killers by requiring background checks? Aren't we to be our brother's keepers?
