THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503030013
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 27 lines
Columnist Richard Cohen's anti-gun piece (Perspectives, Feb. 27) continues the bad idea espoused by the mass media that we should let criminals and psychopaths define and limit our constitutional civil rights. But before we give in to this shabby reasoning, we need to keep two points firmly in mind:
1. Governments (including our own) cannot be made safe; they can only be safeguarded. Hence the division of powers, checks and balances, Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment. We surrender this palladium of liberty at our own peril.
2. Government has no obligation to protect the individual citizen. Government's only obligation is to maintain the general order in society. If for no other reason than personal protection, we need to preserve and protect (even expand) the ``right of the people to keep and bear arms.''
BRIAN BLOEDEL
Melfa, March 1, 1995 by CNB