Enough about feelings, discuss gun facts

I found Carolynn Pianta’s March 25 Perspective piece, “Finding her politics of purpose,” to be an interesting summation of a repressed 1960s’ activist. I was drafted out of school and was near Kent State when scared Guardsmen reacted badly.

We also watched as “deuce and a half" military vehicles, loaded with Ohio National Guard troops, rolled into our campus every day. We smelled and tasted the gas. But I, like Ms. Pianta, was more interested in getting my degree and getting a job; it’s what my upbringing programmed me to do.

That said, I have major disagreements with many of the views expressed. For example, while politicians don’t generally act against the interests of their constituents, these representatives and senators are not merely in Washington to represent those constituents. If they were, we would not have a national Congress. Each state would do as it pleased. These elected leaders also are bound more by their constitutional oaths than by the whims and pleadings of special interests, no matter what percent of “the people” they represent.

Another misguided statement contained in the article is, “All of us should feel safe and be safe.” Good point except that no one has a responsibility to make you feel anything. It’s a sad commentary on today that so many laws are in fact merely making certain voting blocs “feel” this way or that. What you personally feel is very much your own responsibility. You may “feel” safe with no guns around (and while police, with guns, are available to respond in a few minutes) while I “feel” safe with a gun on my hip and a rifle in my house.

So let’s keep “feelings” out of the discussions and discuss facts.

Pianta’s equating so-called common sense gun laws affecting the Second Amendment with banning profanity under the First Amendment is badly wrong. Banning the most popular sporting rifles in the world would not be like banning a few profanities, but rather like banning TV and social media because it is not “the press.”

My offer is this — if you will take a moment to explain what you mean when you use the tired and ridiculously promoted term “common sense gun laws,” I will explain to you factually why there are very few of these.

Are you interested? Or are you happy to have someone else (i.e., police) sacrifice their lives so you can wrap yourself warmly in your “feelings?”

Darryl Conner lives in the Gales Ferry section of Ledyard.