Pag* 2-KlNaS MOUNTAIN HEHALD-TuMday. April 13, 1981
If Amendment Revoked, What*s Next?
To Tho Editor*:
I submit the following opinions in response to a
feature that advocated gun<ontrol in the April 7,
1981 edition of the Herald. The opinions expressed
CDnoRiNS&opimow
are my own.
Sources of information: 1. Holy Biblo - Kings
James Version; 2. King* Mountain ond It'*
HoroM. by Lyman C. Draper; 3. King* Mountain,
by Hank Messick; 4. 1976 Gun Dig**!, edited by
John Amber; 5. Gun Control: A Docialon for
Amorlcan*. by Edard F. Dolan, Jr.
GUN CONTROL AND FREEDOM
On April 1,1789, the first session of the 1st U.S.
Congress convened. The first 10 amemdments to
the Constitution were ratified on December IS,
1791. These amendments became known as the Bill
of Rights. The amendment we are most concerned
with here is the 2nd or the “Right To Bear Arms
Amendment.” The 2nd Amendment reads:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Today, this right is endangered. The anti-gun peo
ple point out that the word “militia” means the Na
tional Guard. To really understand this amendment
you have to look at that word like the people of 200
years ago did.
The Founding Fathers defined the word in their
debates. Militia meant “every citizen qualified to
vote.” It meant “the people.” it did not mean any
organized military organization, state or national, to
be formed a century later.
The Founding Fathers did not want or trust a
large standing army. They were afraid such an army
could fall into the hands of a future despot and be
used against the people. Instead they wanted the
country’s main defense to be various state militias.
These militias were to be made up of citizens who
quickly became soldiers in time of danger. The
amendment does not say that the militia members
would be the only citizens to have guns.
Alexander Hamilton said in his papers that, ac
tually, there were to be two militias. One was to be
“organized” of citizen soldiers. The other was to be
“unorganized” and made up of the rest of the
population. He clearly indicates that the Second
Amendment was to give all Americans the right to
'own a gun.
* After the amendment was adopted, a proposal
was made to add four new words. These words
would have altered it to read “the right of the people
to bear arms lor th* common dolona* shall not be
infringed.” The proposal was defeated. An
American had the right to own a gun for any
legitimate purpose.
One point should be remembered about defen
ding yourself against a suppressive government.
The National Guards are state armies but their
commander-in-chief is the President. The President
can “federalize” the Guards at any time. In the
hands of the wrong President, they could be turned
against the people they are supposed to protect.
As you know a revolutionary battle was fought at
Kings Mountain. Did you realize that both sides
were composed of citizen militia. The only soldier
Roads In Bad Shape
To the citizen* of Kings Mountain: *
Our once fine town is getting very slack. It’s our
job to shape it up to what it once was. Take for in
stance the public roads. Nobody likes driving on
bumpy, tore-up roads, but in Kings Mountain,
that’s aJl there hardly is.
About the only road that is even decent enough
to drive on is the one in front of the new, expensive
city hall or otherwise known as the Governmental
Facilities Building. You know? The building that
was built off those government loans, that your
children and their children will still be paying for if
they live here when they are grown up.
Speaking of our town’s children. The imagination
park has really come along for the little kids, but
what about us teenagers. Some of us like to play
putt-putt, but we don’t have a course. Oh yes, we do
but is so full of weeds and is always closed I forgot
about it. The swimming pool was once a pretty fun
place to be but it gets too overcrowded and is pretty
bad out of shape. Nobody wants to go swimming
with rocks and bottles.
We could go on talking about the bad things
that’s become of this town, but we don’t have
enough paper. One last thing before we close. If this
big KM town would spend as much time and
money restoring this town as much as they do tear
ing it up, we would have a much nicer town.
David Green
801 Henry Street
John Etters
804 Henry Street
Support Emergency Services
Dear Editor,
One of our much needed and desired public ser
vices is in serious jeopardy. The Kings Mountain
Emergency Rescue Services, Inc. formed in 1977
and beginning with a deficit of approximately
$19,000 is in dire need of citizen funds and support
to liquidate a pressing balance of approximately
$3,600 on equipment plus funds for continued
operation. WeVe done well thus far on the debt but
with a little extra effort on our part along with the
conununity’s faithful support we can eradicate the
balance due and gain funds for supplies, equipment,
,etc.
The Services is dedicated and owned by the
citizens of the Greater Kings Mountain area, funds
to provide this outstanding service to us are obtain
ed by 100*70 donations and no charge to those serv
ed! Additional revenue is gained by various sales;
bake, hot dog, rummdge and door to door solicita
tion by volunteers (usually the crewmen).
The Technicians and crewmen who give so
unselfishly of their time to obtain required training
and “Duty-Hours” receive no compensation other
than the satisfaction of having served their fellow
citizens in time of crisis when the need is most assur
ing. They spend many long, hard hours of training
to help save lives and certainly give much of
themselves in the process. Can we not now give
something in return for this devotion? Kings Moun
tain is a progressive area, let’s not regress by losing
such a much needed service. We are only helping
ourselves by providing what these outstanding
Volunteers need to continue their generous mission.
Being handicapped and having had to use the ser
vice several times naturally I’m especially respectful
for the care and professional concern they provide
and the long hours they endure in training, duty
and away from home.
Presently conunanding the squad is Capt. Ed
ward Collins and contributions will be picked up
Friday thru Sun., April 17-19 until 6 p.m. or may be
mailed to Kings Mountain Emergency Rescue Ser
vices, P.O. Box 189, City, 2P086. Call 739-8088 for
donation pick up. All donations are needed, ap
preciated and tax deductible.
Please citizens lets give to our own so that they
may contiime to give us a service much needed and
desired! Business firms support is highly desired.
This letter is not meant in any manner by myself
or content to reflect any dissatisfaction for the
highly competent, professional and very important
services provided to us by the Cleveland County
Emergency Med. Service which is staffed by E.M.T.
of the highest caliber and an important cre^t to our
community. They too are ours!
C. Ro** Baumgardner
Waco Road, King* Mountain
that belonged to a regular army was Patrick
Ferguson. If the Americans who fought and won at
Kings Mountain had been denied guns because of a
‘Gun Law,” we might well be subjects of the (^een
today.
One of the groups that push for more gun control
laws it the news media, both electronic and print. I
wonder what the reaction would be if someone tried
to restrict the rights guaranteed in the 1st Amend
ment, that is the one that guarantees freedom of the
press and freedom of religion, among others.
The following comments were made by U.S. Rep.
Steve Synuns (R-Idaho) to the Subcommittee on
Crime in part from an editorial that appeared in the
1976 Gun Digoat.
“Let me begin by assuring you that I am all in
favor of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals,
although I must confess that I am much more con
cerned about the commission of a crime than I am
about the method or weapons employed. Never
theless, disarming criminals of firearms is a worthy
goal. Unfortunately, it is also completely unrealistic.
Those who attempt to impose strict registration re
quirements or outright bans on firearms as ways of
keeping them away from criminals are fighting a los
ing battle. Common sense tells us that the reason
they are classified as criminals in the first place is
because they are in the habit of breaking laws.
There is no reason to assume that they will obey
federal gun laws any more than the other laws they
have broken.
‘The question of federal gun registration goes
even beyond this argument, however. As a result of
the Naynes decision by the Supreme Court in 1968,
criminals would not be legally obliged to register
their guns - only honest citizens would. The Court
ruled that since persons who possess firearms illegal
ly would be incriminating themselves if they came
forward and registered them, that they were in ef
fect exempted from gun registration.
‘The desire to ban firearms as a solution to crime
is very analogous to the desire in the 1920’s to ban
liquor as a solution to intemperance. Gun prohibi
tionists and liquor prohibitionists both reach their
conclusions by convoluteld logic about human
behavior. Their assumption is that human beings
are victims - mere pawns of the inanimate objects
around them. Remove the objects and all will be
well. The Prohibition period should have taught us
that this kind of reasoning is nonsense, that deviant
behavior is primarily a function of human free will.
And just as whiskey was readily available in the
1920’s to whoever chose to bre^ the law, so will
firearms be easily obtainable through illegal chan
nels by the crime community. The black market op-
twrtunities for organized crime would be staggering.
Ultimately, any ban on firearms would have the ef
fect of funneling huge amounts of money into the
coffers of those who the law was originally intended
to control.”
In conclusion. Rep. Synuns says, “My final objec
tion to federal firearms control rests on moral and
philosophical grounds. Gunowners, hunters, sport
smen, collectors and shooters are, as a group, pro
bably the most law-abiding people in the entire
United States. They are not potential killers and
menaces to their communities as the anti-firearms
campaign portrays them... To penalize these people
who use firearms for lawful purposes because of the
criminability of a minute number is not in cons
cience with the fundamental American principle of
justice and fairness. Nor does it set well with our
heritage and history as a free people.”
After reading Rep. Symms remarks about that
ruling by the Supreme Court does anyone still think
that a registration program at any level of govern
ment would stop criminals from getting a gun?
Laws that define the act of murder and dictate
penalties for an act of murder have been on the
books for as long as history has been recorded. In
the Bible we are told that the first murderer was
Cain. No one knows how long ago that happened
but the murder recorded in the Book of Genesis
predated the invention of firearms by thousands if
not millions of years. Ever since that time, even
with laws that prescribed death as punishment,
murder has been one of the leading crimes. Did laws
that condemn murder stop Lee Harvey Oswald
from killing John Kennedy or James Earl Ray from
All In Good Time
PUBUSHED EACH
TUESDAY
AND THURSDAY
GARLAND ATKINS
Publl*h«r
GARY STEWART
Co-Editor
LIB STEWART
Co-Editor
MEMBER OF NORTH
CAROUNA PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Tho Herald 1* publlahod
by Herald Publishing
House, P,0. Box 752, King*
Mountain, N.C, 28086.
Buslne** and editorlol oi-
fice* ore located at Canter
bury Road-East King Street.
Phone 739-7496. Second
close postage paid ot King*
Mountain, N.C. Single copy
20 cents. Subscription rotes:
$12.48 yearly In-state. $6.24
six months. $13.52 yearly
out of state. $6.76 six mon
ths. Student rates for nine
months. $8.50. USPS 931-040.
1 don’t know about you other folks out there, but I have no desire whatsoever to live
to be 1(X) years old. Every now and then 1 read an article about how the scientists will
unlock a mystery in the near future that will make time stand still and we will become
ageless.
1 don’t care what they do, 1 believe we will feel tired and worn out and more than
ready to call it quits. If youVe lived a fairly good life, worked hard, and done at least a
part of what was expected of you when it’s time to go. I’ll be ready. How about you?
What really scares me is this “lingering on” business. I think everything possible
should be done to keep a person in good health and spirits for as long as possible. When
the time comes it seems cruel to me to drag out a terminal illness.
Many diseases that once killed so many people of all ages have come under control.
Real miracles have come about.
Now the scientists are beginning to work on our genes. Here they are hopeful of
great discoveries. Maybe these should be left alone.
Most experts agree that what we eat and drink and do make up our body health.
One of the most important things is a positive outlook on life. I think I have that. I’m
happy most of the time and positive I don’t want to live to be 100 - not even 99.
A friend of mine jokingly (maybe not) suggested once some time ago that we go
“ofT and have our faces lifted and a few other things. I said “What’s the use, the out
side might be spruced up, but the inside would be the same old worn out me.”
1 love cartoons - some are really good. One fellow said to the other “Why don’t you
get up and go to work?” He answered, “I’m too tired.” “You’re not either, you’re just
lazy.” Well, I love this - “Lazy people can get tired too.” Amen to that.
Americans have gone hog wild over exercises - all kinds of weird doings besides the
regular games. It’s supposed to be good for you. I guess it is. I wouldn’t know. Just do
ing what I have to, to keep me and my household together takes all the strength I’ve
got and more.
When I think of doing all these chores over and over, on and on, it just seems quit
ting time won’t be so bad.
Johnny Carson had a woman on his show the other night that said she was 96 years
old. 1 declare she didn’t look a day over 73 at the most! She talked bright and cheerful
and said she’d just recently started making commercials. Imagine that. She said she’d
been married 62 years and had been smart. She’d married a man 7 years younger than
she was and he’d helped her a lot - good planning.
E&TELLI
killing Martin Luther King? Did the laws of civiliza
tion stop Adolf Hitler and his henchmen from
murdering 6flOO0OO plus human beings during
World War II? How alraut the untold millions that
have died at other men’s hands since time began? If
laws worked would there even be a crime rate to
report? Would there be a need to have prisons to
separate law-breakers from society? If laws worked
wouldn't we have Heaven on Earth? The whole
idea is not to break laws.
Some people are going to break any gun law that
is in effect now or any law that might be enacted in
the future.
Why has something that was looked upon with .
pride in this country 30 years ago become a thing to
hide in the 1980’s? The thing I refer to is gun owner
ship and believing in the right of a free and proud
people to own firearms.
i^ericans are guaranteed a lot of basic rights by
the Constitution. We are the only people in the
world today that have these rights and freedoms.
The right to bear arms is just one of them. Our
country was founded on a dream of freedom. The
United States of America in 1981 is the end result of
200 years of that dream evolving into what we are
today. Our country is not perfect by any means but
even with all its problems I would not want to live
anywhere else or under any other form of govern
ment. Would you?
I will fight for my rights. All of them, not just the
right to bear arms. If we as a nation surrender any
of our constitutional rights, I believe there would
begin a domino reaction that would result in the loss
of every right and freedom we now enjoy. Think
long and hard, if the 2nd Amendment is revoked,
which amendment and what freedom would be next
on the list?
JUan L Ions*
304 Fulton SL. Kings Mountain
He*s For
Gun Control
Door Editors,
Our President lies wounded, felled by a bullet
fired from a “Saturday Night Special.” This favorite
weapon of the assassin was easily obtained at a
Dallas pawnshop.
In all but one of the eleven assassinations and at
tempted assassinations of Presidents or Presidential
can^dates, the assassin used a handgun. Presidents
Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley were slain. Can
didate Robert Kennedy was killed. Governor
George Wallace is crippled. In September 1975
alone. President Ford’s life was threatened twice by
assassins wielding handguns. Now President
Reagan has been shot.
Must we bury another President before the Con
gress aas to pass an effective national handgun con
trol law? Together we can make the Congress act
now to control handguns. Join with us today.
N.T. Shislds
Chairman. Handgun Control. Inc.
810 18th StTMt. N.W.
Woshington, D.C. 20(X)6
Thanks
To City
An Opon LoHor To City oi Kings Mountain:
I appreciate the lovely flowers you planted
around the Depot, first the lovely camellias, then
the pretty white cherry trees. Now, the white
dogwood and pink double cherry trees.
I enjoy the delicious meals provided by the Kings
Mountain Aging Program, the nice programs and
the friends there.
Thank you for all of us who participate in the ac
tivities of the Kings Mountain Aging Program at
the Depot.
ELIZABETH RHEA
Wost Mountain St.
INK
Anyway she’s one in a million. Ill stick to my hopes of not making it to 100 - for bet
ter or worse.
We come into this world just as we are without any choice as to who we will be.
Seems only fair we should have a say so as to our departure, if we have a chance. It
should be quiet, easy, and over when it’s time.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the story I read recently about a woman 106 years old.
She said that she would probably have been dead 60 years ago if she’d ever gotten mar
ried! Be that as it may most of us are willing to take a chance or two. Besides you know
the old saying “There's no fool like an old fool.” I may make it in spite of myself if I
keep on giving up bad habits. Folks, I’m not on my fifth day of abstaining from my
consumption of jelly beans. It’s not easy!
» t
)) •
V •
))
» •
»
))