A couple of weeks ago I submitted a letter entitled “Are we insane?” related to the Republicans deciding that every gun loving lunatic should be allowed to carry a gun anywhere they wanted to. This seems like an insane idea from any direction that you approach it. Any use of weapons results in more collateral damage than positive actions. We have no evidence of productive gun battles.
All we see is innocent people being killed or wounded by uncontrolled and misdirected flying bullets. My letter was too many words but I never got around to editing it.
Any survivor of real gun battles will tell you that the word that describes these incidents is chaos! There are no moments that resemble a TV show or a movie. In the real world people are only reacting out of fear.
That is why the gunfire does more damage than good. The hours spent at a firing range do not translate into cool and calm actions when someone else is actually shooting back at you.
Now the Republicans have wasted our time by proposing that we put a gun on our state flag. Luckily they voted it down. To waste time on such a proposal when there are so many important issues, is testament to a group of politicians that no longer want to accomplish anything of value.
We the people are truly insane if we cannot elect better representation than this. It is a really good thing that we do not let these people destroy our state by having longer or more frequent legislative sessions. Maybe in the next election we can elect people who are Montanans and not on a cultural crusade!
Douglas Mawhinney
Gallatin Gateway
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 4/7/21