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Wednesday, January 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
N
Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
Armed bandits do not bring legitimacy to a
cause. It doesn’t work that way in our country.
These vandals fashion themselves as patri-
ots, riding horseback while waving a large
American flag, wearing cowboy hats, and pre-
senting an image that tugs at the heartstrings
of many Americans.
We’re being played; plain and simple.
There is some marketing genius in the illegal
take-over of Malheur Wildlife Refuge and the
more armed militants who arrive on the scene
the greater the risk for a peaceful outcome.
Ammon Bundy, by the way, is not a cowboy.
He’s a mechanic.
Perhaps he laments the loss of a lifestyle
that isn’t economically viable anymore. Many
do. Fishermen on both coasts who over-fished
their fisheries do. Workers whose jobs have
been automated do. Things change. None
of that, however, has anything to do with
a wildlife refuge that has been legally cre-
ated. In a remarkable effort to bring together
all interested parties, hundreds of hours of
collaborative effort went into the current oper-
ating plan for the Malheur Refuge. The com-
munity of Burns fully participated. Bundy
wasn’t present for this process, but now feels
inclined to make his own declaration for the
right use of the land.
Likewise, the issue of sentencing for the
Hammonds also is a nonsensical segue to the
occupation of the refuge. The Hammonds are
being held to the law which stipulates manda-
tory minimum sentencing. This is a harsh law
and one of the reasons our prisons are so full.
Making a stand at the refuge, cutting down
fences, bringing in more and more armed
extremists, doesn’t address how this law could
be changed.
The tactics of the Bundy Band of Bullies
are abhorrent to the values of democracy. More
harm than good is being done to the plight of
law-abiding public-land ranchers who pay
grazing fees and abide by regulations.
Bundy’s trumped-up cause is not valid.
See leTTeRS on page 23
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There’s been much hand-
wringing over U.S. President
Barack Obama’s announce-
ment of gun-related execu-
tive actions. Few issues
spark as much passion in
America as gun control, and
it’s almost impossible to
have a rational conversation
about firearms these days
without some people freak-
ing out about having their
guns taken away.
Nervous gun owners
should take a deep breath,
since tighter gun control
would require government
to suddenly become efficient
at something.
Despite being mugged in
Paris a few years ago, I don’t
feel naked or vulnerable
because I don’t carry a gun.
Firearms aren’t readily avail-
able in France, and there
isn’t much of a gun culture
there. There were no guns
involved in my incident.
Having grown up in
Canada, where there is no
gun culture, my first thought
during the mugging did not
run automatically to “gun.”
Sure, some bad guys in
France obtain guns, but it’s
tough to find them when
there aren’t many available.
That’s not the case in the
U.S., and it simply never
will be.
Mutually assured destruc-
tion is at the very founda-
tion of the U.S. Constitution
and American culture. It’s
an interesting paradox: The
U.S. has for decades sought
to prevent hostile nations
from obtaining weapons of
mass destruction, yet many
Americans find it perfectly
acceptable for any nutcase
to be able to legally pack
heat — even though a rogue
state poses far less danger to
the average American than
a rogue citizen. America
hasn’t been nuked, but a
great many people have died
in gun incidents.
I don’t think that Obama’s
new firearms measures con-
stitute a nefarious plot to dis-
arm America any more than I
think advocating healthy eat-
ing is a plot to rip the Coke
cans out of people’s hands.
However, it’s hard to believe
that the best plan this admin-
istration can come up with to
combat gun violence is one
that essentially dumps more
cash into the pockets of gov-
ernment agencies.
According to the White
House statement announc-
ing the new measures,
the Federal Bureau of
Investigation “will hire more
than 230 additional examin-
ers and other staff” to pro-
cess background checks.
The Bureau of Alcohol
Tobacco and Firearms will
get another 200 enforcement
agents. As if additional per-
sonnel will make an already-
bloated bureaucracy more
efficient.
The departments of
Defense, Justice and
Homeland Security get to
“conduct or sponsor research
into gun safety technology.”
Why not offer huge tax
incentives for firearms man-
ufacturers to do this? Why
does every new idea have to
cost the taxpayer money?
An extra $500 million
of proposed funding will go
toward increasing access to
mental health care. Maybe
mental health care would
already be accessible and
affordable if Americans
didn’t have sky-high health-
care premiums as a result of
the healthcare lobby being in
cahoots with the Washington
establishment.
A new rule will require
background checks for the
purchase of weapons at gun
shows or through a trust
or corporation. Yet one of
the most critical elements
of the whole plan is being
dumped into the laps of the
individual states. According
to the White House state-
ment, “Attorney General
Loretta E. Lynch has sent a
letter to states highlighting
the importance of receiving
complete criminal history
records and criminal dispo-
sitions, information on per-
sons disqualified because of
a mental illness, and quali-
fying crimes of domestic
violence.”
The federal government
will be able to line the pock-
ets of its agencies under the
guise of hiring, outreach,
customer service and techno-
logical innovation—things
that the government is gen-
erally pretty awful at doing.
So, American gun own-
ers, you can sit back, clean
your firearms and relax,
knowing that the govern-
ment is too awash in bureau-
cracy and ineptitude to get to
you any time soon.
© 2016 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.