January 17

Firearms need to be kept,need to be used safely, too

Letter to the Editor

In 1757, George Washington was fighting alongside British regulars in the French and Indian wars. He had even asked for a commission in the British Army. He was turned down because he was a colonial.

I doubt that Washington thought that soon he would be engaged in battle against his erstwhile king. Time went on, the king and Parliament became less and less responsive to the needs of the colonists, raised taxes, imposed oppressive restrictions on trade and other slights.

Acts of rebellion began about 1772 with the seizure of the British vessel HMS Gaspee. Things went downhill from there; eventually the Brits tried to disarm the local militias. Then we had open rebellion, civil war (loyalist versus rebel) and a global conflict.

Today, people seem to forget that oppression isn't always a rapid process. It starts with simple things: the governing body saying it knows what is best for us, then increasing our dependence on it and slowly taking away the means to resist.

It isn't paranoia when you realize that people do not learn from history and do keep repeating the same mistakes.

Do not disarm. Learn how to be safe with weapons, learn how to keep people safe around weapons. And never forget, always treat any firearm as if it is fully loaded and ready to fire.

David Hendren

Randolph

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