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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2018)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com February 28, 2018 Wallowa County Chieftain Columnist was wrong to blame NRA T he Main Street column in the Feb. 21 edition seemed to push the narrative that the gun is at fault in the Florida school shooting, especially AR15 type rifles and high capacity magazines and the bad folks in the NRA. The debate seems to suggest two ways to stop these shootings. One is to outlaw certain types of firearms and magazines. The sec- ond is to prevent the homicidal maniacs from getting any weapons and having access to our schools. This includes armed personnel in the schools. Banning a specific type of fire- arm won’t do anything to solve the problem. Weapons can be modi- fied, illegal guns acquired or other weapons substituted by any maniac who is determined to kill. In the ’30s, Marsh (Carbine) Williams, designed and built a semi-auto carbine in a prison work- shop, while a prisoner. After being pardoned, he sold his rifle designs to Winchester and to the U.S. government. Most shooters know the AR as a great firearm for target shoot- ing and a really superior system for GUEST COLUMN Douglas Wickre shooting varmints, like coyotes. Even the Department of Home- land Security (in their requisitions) ordered AR15 style rifles because they are necessary for “per- sonal defense use in close quar- ters ...” and they specify 30-round magazines. Dean Weingarten of Houston was attacked by three thugs as he sat on his porch May 6, 2017. They started shooting at him, he returned fire with his AR15. More than 40 rounds were fired, and resulted in two dead attackers, one wounded, Dean was unharmed. If he had been limited to a six-shot revolver or a few rounds in a shot- gun, the result probably would have been very different. This country is beset by street gangs, drug gangs and home inva- sions. Are our elderly abused women and easily victimized pop- ulations not allowed to own a tool that will allow them to protect themselves from the victimizers? The only effective solution to this problem is to identify and dis- arm the dangerous mental cases and violent criminals. The NRA has worked for decades to first institute a background check sys- tem and then to force the govern- ment to input the name of dan- gerous individuals to make that system work. There are still 38 states that have not input a large percentage of offenders and adjudicated vio- lent mental cases into the NICS system. We would not have the system if the NRA had not pushed politicians to approve it. We have a political system that, in many cases, thinks it is more important to hide dangerous and insane people behind HIPPA laws than it is to protect public safety. We have politicians who pro- vide sanctuary to violent felons and gang members in our country ille- gally. President Obama pardoned hundreds convicted of violent drug and gun crimes. The NRA has developed and funded a program called School Shield, which provides teams of law enforcement personnel to do a week-long assessment of a par- ticular school, looking at facility, grounds, access, monitoring, train- ing and policies. They provide the school with detailed methods and ways to pro- tect against school violence. This is free to the schools, paid for by those evil NRA members. Please ask MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times and the other out- lets demonizing the law-abiding gun owners in this country, ”what have you done to help schools pro- tect the staff and students?” In addition, the NRA has long assisted law enforcement with training programs and ranges to conduct training (like the Eagle Cap Shooters Association Range in Enterprise.) The Parkland, Fla., shooting absolutely showed us how to pre- vent this type of shooting. We are told that there were 39 times that the Broward County Sheriff was warned that Nikolas Cruz was a danger and likely to kill people. We are told that the school was so worried about him that they took several steps to control Cruz, not letting him carry a backpack to school and other precautions. The FBI was warned at least twice that he was a potential school shooter and had made comments to that effect on social media. Why was he not on the “prohibited” list for firearms purchase? Why was he not involuntarily committed? Once again, it is the person pull- ing the trigger, not whatever type of weapon he has in his hands. I hold the FBI, the county sheriff, the school and the mental health community at fault here. There is not one iota of evidence that any of the five million NRA members had any complicity. The NRA should be thanked for attempting to put procedures in place to prevent this kind of trag- edy. I have not even mentioned the Broward County School resource officer and deputies who appar- ently took cover outside the school while this homicidal maniac pur- sued his massacre. Douglas Wickre resides in Joseph. OK Theatre will be back in business soon M y column got pulled last week because of space constraints. I’m a bit worried that not one person called to ask if it was going to continue to appear. I’m beginning to wonder if anyone reads this column or perhaps our readers thought leaving it out was an oversight on our part. This week, I spent several days at a regional training with Rotary International in Seattle. That left my time for col- umn-writing a bit truncated. It was nice to wake up to sun Monday morn- ing after liv- Paul Wahl ing in Seattle’s clouds, rain and snow for a spell. I’m not sure that’s something I could adjust to. WAHL TO WALL YOUR FIRST opportunity to see the newly remodeled OK Theatre will be March 4 when the Infamous Stringdust- ers take the stage. Darrell Brann and his crew have been working like beavers on steroids to complete the work. If you’ve ever remodeled anything, you know the pitfalls that can crop up. And with a building as old as the OK, there were probably more than a few. Stringdusters are a terrific group, so it should be a great night of fun and music. See you there. PREPARING AND editing content for the 2018 Wal- lowa County Visitor’s Guide has reminded me of the busy spring, summer and fall ahead. We expanded the calendar portion a bit this year to pro- vide better descriptions about the events. In previous years, we’ve only published an event name, assuming that every- one knows what each event is all about. We also have some absolutely amazing and stunning pho- tography going into this year’s edition. It will be a work of art, I promise. LETTERS to the EDITOR NRA is not going away The Main Street column, “Children, Moms, and the NRA,” nicely points out the fact that people affected by terrible incidents such as drunk driving accidents, school shootings and wildlife poaching take notice and become proactive. That’s all well and good; however, the school shooting issues of proper background investigations, mental health and gun ownership aren’t mentioned. These issues are being discussed at the highest levels; in fact, our President (yes, the one in the White House) has been discussing these and others for the past two days with representatives of the NRA. So, contrary to the writer’s desire that the NRA go away, that’s more than likely not going to happen. Maury Bunn Enterprise See LETTERS, Page A5 Why Trump dalliances really do matter A s I embark on this column, I am all too conscious that I am writing for an audience of readers that might include children. Although the subject matter is for adults, I will make an effort to be discreet and occasionally cryptic in my references. Donald Trump married his third and current wife, model Melania Knavs in 2005. By even the most lax of social standards, he has not proven to be a model husband. Trump and Billy Bush, cohost of the show Access Hollywood, were recorded in a conversation that proved to be a disgrace to both of them when it was unearthed October 2016. On tape, Trump spoke crudely about attempts he had made to seduce one of Bush’s cohosts, Nancy O’Dell, who was married at the time. Trump also remarked that he had better take Tic Tacs as he prepared to meet another of Bush’s on air co-workers, explaining, “You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful (women) –– I just start kiss- ing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” Shortly after the release of the tape, 19 women came forward publicly mak- ing various allegations against Trump. The ages of the accusers and allega- tions spanned decades. Trump brazenly denied them all. One of the accusers was Rachel Crooks, who claims to have been a somewhat starstruck receptionist at Trump Towers when she introduced her- self to the famous man outside an eleva- tor in 2006. According to Crooks’ account, as he initially shook her hand, Trump contin- ued to hold it and then began kissing her on the cheeks and ultimately on the mouth. Crooks claims the whole kissing inci- dent went on for what seemed like two minutes, and that day, she sent emails POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY John McColgan to her mother and sister back in Ohio describing how shaken she felt. Her story has resurfaced recently because Crooks is now running for a seat in the Ohio state legislature. Trump has gone on Twitter to blast the Wash- ington Post for this story, tweeting, “Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras running?” But, according to Trump’s own boasts to Billy Bush, Trump would, actually. And it also appears from recently res- urrected accounts that Mr. Trump was very active sexually with other women besides his new wife Melania in 2006, including adult film star Stormy Daniels. In October 2016, Daniels was pre- pared to dish dirt about her brief affair with Trump, but Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen got wind of the sched- uled interviews and set up a special LLC for the purpose of securing a confiden- tiality agreement with Ms. Daniels in exchange for her denial and silence. After the Wall Street Journal recently unearthed details of Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels and the New York Times continued to press Cohen fur- ther, Trump’s former attorney eventu- ally admitted the arrangement, while still maintaining that the affair never happened and that the confidentiality agreement was not authorized or funded by Trump or his campaign and that the money came from Cohen’s own pocket. Gee, what a pal! Another episode of journalistic suf- focation (or altruism) also occurred in October 2016 when the publisher of the Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group VOLUME 134 USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Contents copyright © 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Publisher Editor Reporter Reporter Newsroom assistant Ad sales consultant Office manager Marissa Williams, marissa@eomediagroup.com Paul Wahl, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com National Enquirer, David Pecker, who is another long-term friend of Trump, bought the exclusive rights to the story told by Karen McDougal, a centerfold model whom Trump met at a pool party at the Playboy Mansion, again in the summer of 2006. Pecker chose to engage in what is known as a “catch-and-kill” strategy, by purchasing the story precisely so that no one else could tell it and he could snuff it out. But recently, Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker dug up and divulged the same story in considerable detail. Some readers might wonder why Trump’s alleged womanizing, espe- cially in consensual relationships or in one-night-stands, should even matter to us as citizens. But consider that in addi- tion to the sheer immorality of cheating on his wife or lying about it, or of pay- ing or authorizing people to buy silence via confidentiality agreements, there remains the specter of one of the most salacious allegations in the notorious Steele dossier. Allegations included an incident that at the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013, Trump was offered five Russian women for an evening at his hotel. No one knows what happened in Trump’s hotel room that evening. Vladimir Putin, whom Trump referred to in a 2013 tweet as “his new best friend,” has dismissed all allega- tions of a sexual romp by Trump at the pageant as ridiculous. But, Putin added coyly, “We do have the best “female proletariat” –– my translation. Given Mr. Trump’s well-established personal history before and since 2013, is it possible, and perhaps even likely, in light of all these recent revelations, that Putin might have discovered Trump’s Achilles heel? And if he did, what price might we all be paying for Putin’s coup? John McColgan writes from his home in Joseph. Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet Wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828