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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992                   TAG: 9202030165
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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LOVE CONSTITUTION IN ITS ENTIRETY

AS ONE MIGHT predict, the Jan. 27 editorial, "Again, the flag-abuse issue," opposed any constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from abuse - the argument being, we just can't tamper with the First Amendment's freedom of expression.

Then followed wording suggesting a great love for the Constitution. I suppose the casual reader might have been impressed by such an outpouring in defense of freedom.

However, some of us who follow this newspaper closely are not fooled by its occasional hypocrisy. For while it is true this paper has consistently defended the First Amendment, it has also consistently attacked the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms.

This newspaper has its right of opinion, and I respect it. But please, let it not describe itself as a great lover of freedom when it does not uphold all the amendments. To love the Constitution is to embrace its entirety.

Yes, gun abuse is abhorrent. Criminals should be punished. But to make exceptions to the Second Amendment because criminals abuse guns is to head down a slippery slope. The right to own a gun is a symbol of the freedom this nation stands for. Tinkering and tampering with the Second Amendment is a great threat to society. JOHN N. INGRAM FERRUM

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