To the Editor:

I have been a hunter and gun owner for 55 years. Currently there are a lot of comments surrounding gun control, freedom, the Bill of Rights, self-defense, home protection. Are we to believe that anyone living in rural northern New York can justify owning a semi-automatic assault rifles for self-defense, hunting, home protection or the defense of their constitutionally granted rights?

Having lived here many years I can’t remember many home invasions, carjacking or felony assaults on strangers.

If a gun is involved in a crime, the crime usually involves persons known to each other or in an infrequent armed robbery. However, I have read countless stories of injury and death through carelessness or violent assaults on neighbors and family members by “someone” with a gun.

As for the constitutional issue, one letter called it a “slippery slope.” You Think?

Many reference defending ourselves against the government or the “other side.” I assume most of that nonsense is racial in nature, but maybe I am wrong and maybe there are just a lot of civic-minded gun toting “patriots”?

There is nothing in the Bill of Rights about semi-automatic rifles.

In 1775 there was NO standing army, federal or state police, diesel powered naval ships, surface to air missiles, drones, etc. Many of Washington’s troops carried their own long rifles to war, but by our national bicentennial, we had the defense of our nation pretty well covered.

We give up freedoms for the public good. Traffic laws, for example, limit our freedoms, but we have, for the most part, managed to adapt to them. This topic is not about freedom, the Constitution or personal protection, It is about being civilized. We as a nation have not evolved far from sanitizing the continent of its Native American population.

This madness is just extension of the Wyatt Earp, Davy Crockett, John Wayne nonsense that we grew up taking as truth and at face value. For some it appears to be more important to hang on to these abstract “American” values than to know your grandchildren can go to a school, restaurant or movie, without fear of slaughter. Each year Americas tolerate over 12,000 homicides and 30,000 deaths by firearms, over 80 each day. In 2008 Japan had a total of 11. We should be ashamed of our indolence in accepting this as normal.

Shame on the St. Lawrence County legislators for supporting the “rights” of the “pro-gun” lobby.

Elia Filippi, Richville