To the Editor:

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.” – Benjamin Franklin

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” – George Mason

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling in-convenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. Laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes….Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they act rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” – Cesare Beccaria,  On Crimes and Punishment.

It’s a fact today that most our elected officials are untrustworthy. They lie incessantly and legislate to reduce our liberties.  The founding fathers were painfully aware of this innate truth in government. They wrote the Second Amendment to the constitution in response to that truth.

Barack Obama and the governing thugs in Washington are the very specific reason the Second Amendment exists. Because officials lie routinely and steal our liberties at every opportunity, the founding fathers made certain to write into constitutional law the God-given right all men have to defend themselves against such tyranny.

We presently have $20 trillion in debt and chronic deficit spending as Washington sees fit to engage routinely in generational theft that devalues the present and future economies of the United States. Were there an economic/budgetary lobbying group as successful as the gun lobby, we would be solvent. The NRA has done more to protect liberty in this country than any team of elected officials. We should be proud to have the NSSF in town, and count our blessings for the NRA.

Our freedoms are under constant assault. Absolutely nothing this administration suggests in further limiting the Second Amendment in anyway should be considered. Let’s challenge our lying, freedom-hating, lawless President to start by upholding his oath and working within the Constitution to pass legislation through Congress. His executive actions, wherein he doesn’t draft his intentions but simply enacts them undergoing no oversight whatsoever, should not be applauded. They should serve as part of a very broad basis for his impeachment.

Locally we have folks bemoaning a $2.4 million grant to NSSF for a Child Safety program (any complaints from this individual for the $500,000,000 Planned Parenthood is awarded every year for butchering infants and profiting from sale of their body parts?) and others who see background checks as a “common sense” start. Here’s some common sense: progressives are so named for their progressive theft of liberty. Contrary to their claims, whether Republican or Democrat, they strive to disarm the public.

Brendan Duffy

4 Chestnut Knoll Drive, Sandy Hook     January 18, 2016