LETTER: Protestors, don’t chip away at the Second Amendment

Protestors, don’t chip away at the Second Amendment

It’s great that people of Vashon and across the nation exercised their First Amendment rights that generations have fought and died for. You all have a voice, and yes, you need to be heard, but don’t expect it to go unchallenged — even on Vashon. You said this was a “march for our lives” about protecting kids in school and involving kids, but what I observed was a political rally. It was anti-NRA, anti-Trump, anti-guns and anti-Second Amendment. The message I got was a political message from the left wing and liberal. Only a few kids, some too young to know why or what they were marching about, were there.

Demonizing the NRA, Second Amendment and Trump does nothing to solve this problem. You may think the solution is gun control, and we can debate that, but don’t you dare blame the NRA and Trump supporters for crimes they didn’t commit. You don’t get to self-righteously demonize those that don’t agree with your left wing gun control agenda.

You want to stop school shootings and violence? We all do, but if your solution is take away guns and more gun control, then you’re all missing the mark and ignoring the facts. Gang bangers, lunatics, terrorists, felons and lonely, picked-on kids don’t care about gun laws. Law-abiding citizens don’t love or worship their guns more than kids or their fellow man. We simply believe in our constitutional right to own, protect and defend ourselves, family and fellow citizens. You don’t get to chip away at our Second Amendment right just because you don’t find it useful. Our Second Amendment right means something, and we will not sit idly by and watch it arbitrarily corroded.

So yes march, hold signs and protest, but remember my First and Second Amendment rights do not end where your feelings begin.

It’s all about education.

— Brad Shride