To the Editor:

President Obama teared up during his recent announcement of new gun laws, but Americans should consider dispassionately the threats that exist nowadays to their security and to their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones.

The wars against Iraq, Syria, and Libya have created a power vacuum in the Middle East and the Maghreb in which an archipelago of anti-Western forces has been formed, a staging-ground for assaults on Europe and the United States, where in a final battle these forces hope to conquer what they view as the effete, degenerate, morally-corrupt and spiritually-dead West.

Is this the time for American families to let themselves be denied their ultimate defense against those who would harm them?

When in April 2008, then presidential candidate Obama spoke condescendingly of people who “cling to guns or religion,” he was not talking about terrorists who espouse and act on violent beliefs; he was speaking instead of rural, working-class Americans who own guns not to commit mayhem but in order to safeguard their homes and families.

Parents have not only the right but the duty to protect their children. Killing sprees carried out by the deranged must not be used as an excuse to deprive all parents in the country of the ability to defend their families.

Governor Cuomo recognizes that the terrorist danger is ubiquitous and that firearms are of supreme importance in maintaining security. In his recent State of the State address, he stressed that “terror attacks...can occur anywhere within New York State.” He is therefore allocating four million dollars to provide training and “high-powered rifles, body armor and ballistic helmets to all on-duty uniformed troopers.”

But despite having all the good will in the world, the police cannot arrive soon enough to prevent terrorist killings. In the San Bernardino attack, terrorists killed 14 people and had left the vicinity when police arrived. In the Paris assault at the Bataclan Theater, terrorists killed 89 people before police stormed the building; and this was after increased security measures in France in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack earlier in the year.

Voters in St. Lawrence County and elsewhere in the country should realize that when they vote for a president, a governor and senators who have interfered and continue to interfere with their duty to defend their families, they are putting their loved ones at risk.

Kevin Beary

Colton