Second Amendment means protection

Editor:

In regards to Mr. Donald Kaul's column ("If you deploy satire, you do so at your own risk," Page 4) in the Jan. 8 Havre Daily News, I wish to remind him that people have been killing each other for hundreds of thousands of years. What did Cain kill Abel with? A club.

Mr. Kaul, you're missing the point of the Second Amendment. It is the right to bear arms. It is for the people to keep the government in control. Look at Hitler! It took at least 20 years for him to control the German people with laws that prevented them from defending themselves. His government then became uncontrollable and the people had no way to stop it.

If you don't think this can happen in our country, read some history.

By the way, the largest school massacre was, I believe, in 1927. The fellow did not use a gun. The same day, I believe, as the Newtown massacre, one man stabbed two dozen children at a school in China. In the Oklahoma City bombing, more children in the daycare center were killed than in the Newtown school. If the Newtown school officials would have had a way to defend themselves and the children they were responsible for, none of it would have happened.

To keep democracy in America, we as people need more than a single-shot gun or a rock to throw. In certain countries around the world, people are living in fear because they can't protect themselves from others with weapons.

The American people support a government that has kept arms to prevent others from taking over. It's a matter of protecting oneself. That's the reason for the Second Amendment. When the ability to defend oneself is taken away, anyone can take you over.

I'm not saying guns don't kill, but a person must be able to protect oneself. As my son pointed out, all people need to know the difference between right and wrong.

Russel Verploegen

Havre