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Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013

Even armed resistance is futile

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I have no problem with owning a gun to defend yourself or for sport shooting. However, the idea of individuals arming themselves to prevent oppression by the government is not rational.

In Wounded Knee, S.D., or Waco, Texas, resistance to government was unsuccessful.

On a larger scale, Native Americans attempted to defend the areas where they lived and their homes. They were unable to achieve that goal and the federal government relegated them reservations. They had guns. Timothy McVeigh and some civilian militias felt oppressed and the Oklahoma City bombing was a result. The Civil War was the Southern states' reaction to oppression and tyranny. They were unsuccessful. More than a million Americans died.

Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr. and others have had more influence and success opposing oppression. They challenged government without guns. They used and affected change by the First, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments. These also are within the parameters of the U.S. Constitution.

The ballot box is the rational way to prevent oppression in America.

Federal government will always have the superior weapon (gun). Americans who think that they can resist the government with guns has not thought about it seriously, unless they wish to be martyred.

RANDY LITTLE

Denair