******************************************** Additional Text for the 10/31/04 Alumni Sandstorm ******************************************** >>From: Terry Ganz ('68WB) Re: Gun Control Discussion Ok, I want my say on this gun control discussion. Nowhere in the constitution does it talk about hunting and sports in relationship to guns. Guns are a necessity to a well regulated militia (that is every male able- bodied citizen between the ages of 16 and 45). The reason for a militia is to either help protect this country from outside attack or more importantly to protect the citizen from the government that has gone out of control. That is the reason that it says in the second article of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution that "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I feel sorry that a few criminals have caused so much damage with so called "assualt" weapons that I no longer have the right to keep and bear the same type of arms that the military could use against me. I don't think Uncle Buck's double barrel shotgun or bolt action rifle is going to be much use if the government decides to use the army or other government agency against you or me. But with the way gun control is going I may not even have one of those to protect us if I want to remain a law-abiding citizen. It is a shameful that we have become so used to being regulated for "our own good" that we blindly allow more and more personal freedoms to be taken away every day by the government because of the actions of a few criminals and terrorists. Do people really think that the terrorists who hijacked those aiplanes on 9/11 could have gotten away with flying those airliners into the towers and the pentagon if some of the other passengers had been armed? Would the terrorists even had tried knowing that there may have been many armed militia members (see the first paragraph) on that flight if our right to bear arms had not been so trampled on? I could go on but I will stop here and thank God that we still have a few rights left here in the United States. -Terry Ganz ('68WB) ********************************************