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Opinion
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Guns do not give us power. Guns give us the illusion that we have power. We have no power over the major issues that we currently face.
For example, the environment: we know that we don’t have too many flushes before the bowl overflows, but we are helpless to effect change. We can’t even protect our beloved lake from despoliation.
The majority of Americans are opposed to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet, they are both over a decade long. We are lost in a loop of killing and dying. We used to at least have the perception that we had the moral high ground; now we betray our principles and our leaders torture and murder with impunity.
Another major issue of concern to us all is health care. The “Obamacare” bill was forged in a crucible of 100 senators, 437 congressmen and congresswomen, and 3,000 lobbyists.
Although there are some good things to the bill, such as not being denied coverage for “preexisting conditions,” the bill passed because it will make the health insurance companies more money.
Guns are not power, money is power.
A few years ago, our economy was in imminent danger of collapse because the credit spigot was about to be closed.
If the economy is a patient, credit is the life support system, and the plug was about to be pulled before the government (read: our money) began to bail.
The system that caused it is not much reformed, and the guys that caused it, have done so with impunity. If the “economic royalists” (FDR’s phrase) ruin the economy, there is nothing that you can do about it.
I admit that when a man lines up Bambi in his gun sights, and feels some nuance of libidinous excitement, he does have the thrill of power over life. (And, by the way, how do they call it sport, when the best the opponent can do is tie?)
But, as far as power over the decisions that affect our lives, we are but spectators.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Andrew McEvans
I have lived in Lake County all of my life.
Born in Ft Bragg, no hospitals in Lake County then. I remember when Soda Bay Road didn't go to Buckingham. It stopped at an orchard just up from Soda Bay Market which is now the corner of Bergeson and Soda Bay Road. Not where it is now.
I remember having to go to Loch Lomond to get to Lower Lake. The highway didn't exist then.
I remember riding our horses on the unfinished new road to Lakeport from Lower Lake.
I remember when everyone had guns, everyone smoked, everyone hung out at the Lakeview Tavern on Soda Bay. And everyone went to the Harbor Inn across the lake for the bar stool races.
I remember when people were friends and tolerant of faults. We all have them.
Once upon a time, I knew everyone in Lake County. No more. People are moving here with attitudes and city ways – homeowners associations and creating the very environment they were trying to get away from when they came here.
I am fortunate to have a ranch ... an insulator from these things. Until my young friend was killed at his store in Kelseyville.
I remember when we were all friends.
Andrew McEvans lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
The cliché: if they took our guns away, only criminals would have guns is too horrible. It would be unbearable to be defenseless against criminals who obviously would never surrender their arms.
It is not as if we were unarmed to start with, there are millions of arms in the general public now. Most gun owners would concur with and support increased background checks, we already have them in California, but we are all scared of the pacifists outlawing our guns and making us all criminals.
Another cliché comes to mind, that that they would have to take my gun from my cold dead hands.
Our police are not bodyguards, they investigate crime and bring criminals to justice, it is our own responsibility to defend ourselves within the limits of the law.
Let’s not forget who creates these horrendous acts, people not firearms. Before guns, swords, bows, knives, and spears killed millions, and an unarmed and untrained populace made it easy for the bad guys.
I would rather think of people as being mostly of good will, and trusting that we outnumber and outgun the bad guys.
So let’s not get carried away with emotion, we all sympathize and even empathize with the victims’ families and loved ones, but we must not get stampeded into making serious errors.
Remember what the law did with prohibition and our present drug war, they created an outlaw industry that nurtures and makes an entire new set of wealthy law breakers.
This would be a negative unintended consequence that none of us needs.
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: James Hankins
Has any one actually read the Second Amendment?
It is quite simply worded, “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
This has nothing to do with collecting guns, using gun for personal protection, nor hunting.
It seems to me the founding fathers were saying a militia (an army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers) is needed to insure a free state.
That we the citizens of this country will be well armed and able to maintain our own freedoms. That we will not be subservient to a government that no longer places its citizens first. One where the politicians place their personal gains ahead of the country's well being.
While these mass murders in the news are horrible they are committed by an extremely small percentage of the citizens, yet our government would have us believe that they must disarm us all to make us safe.
Just look at what happens when unarmed citizens become unable to defend themselves from tyranny;
the history books are full of these tales and this is the very thing the founding fathers were trying to protect us from!
James Hankins lives in Lucerne, Calif.