4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ MARCH 28, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
LETTERS
G IFT OF LOCAL STUDENT
MUSIC PROGRAM
I had the pleasure of attending the
Willamette Valley Concert Band Festival
to hear our Siuslaw High School
Symphonic Band play.
It was obvious these students and direc-
tor had worked extremely hard to prepare
for this event. We can be proud of their
performance and how they represented
our community.
We can be proud of our music program
and it is such a pleasure to hear our music
students play. For those interested and
able, our symphonic band will play again
in Corvallis on April 5, and Coos Bay on
April 11.
Thank you musicians and music direc-
tor for your gift of music.
—Bobbie Spencer
Florence
S TUDENTS DESERVE A VOICE
I’m not sure where Ian Eales got the
statistics he listed in his letter (“Sad That
Children Being Used as Pawns,” March
24) regarding school shooting deaths of
children versus other causes. I was unable
to find any statistics for the scenarios he
set forth.
At the behest of the NRA, Congress
passed a piece of legislation many years
ago (The Dickey Amendment, 1996) that
precludes the CDC from research or keep-
ing any kind of statistics of any death as
the result of the use of a gun.
Therefore, there are no reliable statis-
tics available.
Mr. Eales also bemoaned the manipula-
tion of students by adults. Clearly, this
grass roots movement was started by the
survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting
— high school kids, not politicians.
It was born from the horror, pain, grief
and fear of these young people after being
sprayed by bullets — an experience that
most adults have not had.
Gun control is not about taking away
anyone’s rights or taking away guns used
for hunting or for personal protection; it’s
about universal background checks and
keeping guns out of the hands of those
who should not have them for specific
reasons.
It’s about keeping weapons of war in
the hands of the military and not in the
hands of civilians.
And it’s about the lives of children.
When I look at the photo on the front
page of the Siuslaw News of the student
walkout (March 17), I do not see Nazi
indoctrination. I see our local students
democratically protesting, as is their right.
They are the ones “in the line of fire,”
and they deserve a voice. They want, and
deserve, safe schools. They want and
deserve to live without fear of being shot
to death or receiving physical and emo-
tional scars that last a lifetime.
—Marybeth Marenco
Florence
A DDRESS REAL FAILURES IN
PREVENTING SCHOOL
SHOOTINGS
As I watched the marchers last
Saturday, it was unclear to me whether the
purpose of this demonstration was for
school safety or for gun control.
If the march was to encourage more
feel-good gun laws that evil and mentally
deranged people ignore, then it was just a
nice walk in the rain.
If the purpose was to protect our chil-
dren with well-trained, armed resource
officers, then I applaud your efforts. With
rare exceptions, teachers are not qualified
in that capacity.
If you truly believe that gun-free zones
are effective, then let’s start by removing
armed officers that protect politicians in
Washington D.C. and Salem.
Do politicians deserve better protection
than school children?
There is an obvious media bias against
the use of force to stop shootings as it
doesn’t fit its narrative. The “other paper”
had an article a few days ago that head-
lined, “School Shooter Wounds 2.” A
more accurate headline would be:
“Officer Stops Armed Student.” The
brave actions of (armed) resource officer
Blaine Gaskell stopped further carnage
when he stopped the shooter by force.
The Florida shooting resulted from the
failure of the FBI, the school system and
local law enforcement. Although no NRA
members have been involved in any
school shootings, they make convenient
scapegoats.
I have read that school officials believe
that armed resource officers are too
expensive. If you do not believe that the
safety of school children is priority num-
ber one, then you are in the wrong job.
—Keith R. Kraft
Florence
G UN SAFETY BEGINS
WITH AWARENESS
Spring Break is here. Grandchildren,
nephews and nieces and their friends are
coming to visit.
To those who have guns in their homes,
this is a reminder that the safest thing we
can do to assure against tragedy is to keep
firearms locked in a safe, keep the ammu-
nition locked separately, and put the key
or code in a place that is not easily acces-
sible to others.
—Karin Radtke
Yachats
B RAINWASHING PEOPLE TO
FEAR GUN REGULATION
I take exception to the questionable sta-
tistics Ian Eales listed in his recent Letter
to the Editor (“Sad That Children Being
Used As Pawns,” March 24).
Anyone with internet access can, with-
in a couple of minutes, easily discover
that school shootings have not remained
fairly constant for more than 150 years, as
his letter claimed.
Just visit wikipedia.org — which has a
good reputation of providing factual data
— and you will see that school shootings
in the U.S. have become much more fre-
quent in recent decades. (Reference:
Wikipedia article “List of school shoot-
ings in the United States.”)
I did not even bother to waste my time
checking Mr. Eales’ other claims about
the likelihood of children being killed on
school buses or in a traffic accident
involving texting.
In response to the Parkland, Fla., high
school massacre, student organizers
planned the nationwide March for Our
Lives in collaboration with the nonprofit
organization Every Town for Gun Safety.
This hardly compares with the Hitler
Youth of Nazi Germany; nor does it
exemplify “brainwashed young adults”
mentioned in Mr. Eales’ letter.
Any change to the Second Amendment
to the Constitution would require ratifica-
tion by three fourths of the states. Does
anyone really believe that such a
Constitutional change will actually be
made in the foreseeable future?
With our divisive politics, I doubt it
would even happen in this century.
I am a conservative with respect to
most socio-political issues, but I have
come to regard the NRA as a corrupt lob-
bying organization — one that really rep-
resents gun sellers and not the rights of
individual Americans.
From my perspective, Mr. Eales’ letter
exemplifies the NRA’s goal of brainwash-
ing people into fearing that “Big Brother”
is someday going to raid your home and
take your guns away.
I can only wonder if Mr. Eales is as sad
about the tragic loss of life from the now-
routine gun violence in this country, as he
is about the Siuslaw News’ front page
photo of the school walkout kids.
—Stephen Johnson
Florence
P ROTECTING OURSELVES IS A
C ONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Recently, Sherry Harvey wrote an
extremely informative Letter to the Editor
on guns and protecting children in all
schools (“Conspiracy Theory or Truth?”
March 21).
Our greatest resource is our next gener-
ation. Today our children are being mur-
dered, in one case while unprotected by
security officers whose job was to secure
the school against any who would do
harm to our most precious resource.
R e m e m b e r Ti a n n a m e n S q u a r e ?
Without the Chinese people possessing
firearms, their oppressive government
controlled the citizenry. They are living in
a Communist/totalitarian state.
When the British were marching to
Lexington and Concord attempting to end
the Revolutionary War before it started,
they were headed to the repository of
firearms to control the citizenry.
The brutal Soviet Union regime start-
ing in 1917 was determined to confiscate
all firearms (which they eventually did) so
that the government could control the cit-
izenry.
The history of nations is who has the
power: government or the people?
In America it’s the people, which his-
torically is something different. We have a
written Constitution to turn to and a Bill
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respecting an estab-
lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer-
cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press, or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
USPS# 497-660
of Rights to honor. In this day and age, we
are discarding tradition in favor of lack of
study and issues of popularity.
Sherry Harvey is correct — we are
killing our next generation for the sake of
political correctness. If Hollywood elites
can have security guards, then why would
they deny that to school children? It’s not
enough to blame the NRA, which is
merely a lobbying group for the sacred
Second Amendment.
Why sacred? Because without the
Second Amendment, how would we
enforce the other nine? Yes, the Framers
had muskets and we have AK-47s. But the
principle remains the same: protection for
the citizenry.
It seems today’s populace either hasnt
read Madison, Hamilton and Jay from the
Federalist Paper, or think they are wiser
than them.
We have the rights of protection, safety
and law in this country like no other in
recorded history. Let’s not throw it away
to those who either no longer revere those
rights.
Benjamin Franklin said it best at the
1787 Constitutional Convention: “God
governs in the affairs of men.”
It seems we are now in a time when
men govern in the affairs of men.
May God continue to bless America.
— Joel Marks
Florence
F ACT - FREE ZONE MORE DAN -
GEROUS THAN GUN - FREE ZONE
Imagine if Ms. Sherry Harvey’s Letter
to the Editor (“Conspiracy Theory or
Truth?” March 21) was a movie pitch. The
plot would be a conspiratorial effort to
frighten the public into supporting anti-
gun measures. Bad guys with AR-15s tar-
get children in a school gun-free zone.
We learn the bad guys are abetted by
well-intentioned but misguided gun-con-
trol advocates who see the tragedy as a
way to pressure government into confis-
cating firearms. At the same time, the lib-
eral main stream media downplay mass
killings when guns are not used and
ignore gun violence in cities where guns
are illegal.
The conspirators organize school walk-
outs and marches and threaten our
favorite stores into curtailing the sale of
guns.
The plot twist? It is revealed the real
conspirator is “another world power, dic-
tator or ideology” looking to establish a
country-wide, gun-free zone that will
enable the take over of America.
From gun-free zones of a movie plot to
the fact-free zone of her letter, Ms.
Harvey argues it really could happen. The
deranged act of a disturbed school shoot-
er being co-opted by an anonymous con-
spiratorial cabal to help nullify the right to
bear arms.
At risk is the constitutional founding
principle that enables citizens to protect
themselves against an oppressive govern-
ment.
This constitutional contention promot-
ed by the NRA disregards the place a
well-regulated militia had in the thinking
of the Founding Fathers who were fresh
from fighting an autocrat’s standing army.
The Declaration of Independence, the
Federalist Papers, the Constitution and its
Bill of Rights are better source documents
than the Second Amendment interpreta-
tions of Wayne LaPierre.
Among the founding principles, free
speech, a free press, religious freedom,
right to due process, freedom from self-
incrimination and freedom from double
jeopardy are, at least, on a par with the
right to bear arms.
As Justice Scalia in Heller vs. D.C.
pointed out, the right to bear arms is not
absolute.
“Getting rid of gun-free zones” argues
Ms. Harvey, “would save more lives than
banning guns.”
In the real world, confiscation is not an
imminent threat. But, in a fact-free zone,
fatality statistics or the realities of Sandy
Hook, Parkland and every other school
shooting fail to persuade that reasonable
gun controls are necessary and constitu-
tional.
Back to that movie plot. It would be
Oscar worthy if by exercising that other
founding principle, the peaceable assem-
bly of the younger generation in
Washington and around the country, per-
suaded their government — our govern-
ment — to address gun grievances beyond
the usual, condolence thoughts and
prayers from the usual political suspects.
—Arnold Buchman
Florence/Scottsdale, Ariz.
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
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TO THE
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E DITOR
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WHERE TO WRITE
Pres. Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments:
202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line:
503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-
228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.gov
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
( 4 th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609
541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan
( Dist. 5 )
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@
oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Caddy
McKeown
( Dist. 9 )
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email: rep.caddymckeown
@state.or.us
West Lane County
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us