Dear Mr Merlo,

In your column you mention, "We are a free people, yet each day we see our freedoms eroded by well-meaning do-gooders intent on sabotaging our basic rights gifted to us under the Constitution."

I respectfully take exception to that statement, on the grounds the Constitution does not give us our rights.  Instead, our rights are Natural Rights (i.e. God given), possessed by right of birth, and the Constitution's purpose is to clarify those rights for the benefit of the legislature--that they will not infringe upon them.

And to the advocates of "gun control" I humbly remind that the lesson of history bears out, corrupt governments are far more deadly to people than street criminals.  I'd rather live in this society and accept its risks with gun-toting dealers and gangsters, than hazard living in an unarmed society where the government lords its power over a hapless populace.

MP