My newspaper printed this piece a while ago.
It was alarmist. It was sensationalist. It was utter bullshit.
It equated a bill with NO COSPONSORS as being a threat to Americans rights. It equated a extremely left wing bill as something that would be supported easily by Democrats.
I responded.
Column pure paranoia
Mike Masterson admitted in his recent column that House Resolution 45 "has yet to find a single co-sponsor." In fact, the legislation is not unlike the other thousands introduced yearly that end up going nowhere, from Ron Paul's constant attempts to bring back the gold standard to Dennis Kucinich's constant attempts to create a Department of Peace.
Despite this, Masterson states that he can't escape the nagging sense that the Congress and the Obama administration are "intent on restricting the Second Amendment."
Now where did he get this idea? Not from fact. Barack Obama has said time and time again that the Second Amendment and gun restriction are nowhere near a priority for him. In fact, he flat-out promised to not take your guns, so it has to be pure paranoia. That paranoia influences people.
Because of inflammatory articles like this one and similar talk from radio and television hosts, fear is being provoked in the minds of many small-town gun owners. Long-held-off paranoia and mental illness are re-emerging in their minds and they are taking action, like killing police officers in Alabama because they're afraid of losing their weapons.
Final note to Mike: Next time you try to scare small-town gun owners with the so-called liberals' boogeyman, ensure that the threat described actually exists. Otherwise, your sensationalist tendencies are put flat out on display.
WESLEY USECHE / Springdale
Even then, this showed up in my newspaper the same day my opinion was printed.
My work is never done...