To name a few, limiting my choices as to the type of vehicle I can drive, preventing me from attending religious services (not me personally), placing me under house arrest with no due process, never ending attempts to restrict, then eliminate my 2A rights.

This is where you and I are going to disagree about the legitimate right of the state to protect its citizens.

I realize that I just tossed a flashbang grenade into the room with that statement, and while there are legitimate concerns that can be raised,

-addressing issues like energy independence and climate change….

-addressing the threat to society's health posed by deadly pathogens…

And addressing society’s right to protect itself against gun violence….

Are NOT activities that represent any sort of unacceptable grab for power, but DO represent the legitimate exercise of power by elected officials carrying out the desires of a majority of citizens.

And at the end of the day, here you are. You probably have a decent vehicle or two in your garage. You live in Texas, so I’m pretty sure it’s exactly the vehicle you wanted and were able to afford.

You survived the pandemic (you are alive, after all… thank God for vaccines) and your experience of restrictions- well… maybe they left you pissed off, but pandemic quarantines are never fun- their sole aim is to keep the greatest number of people alive.

And at the end of the day- your 2a rights have only expanded over the past several decades, well beyond anything that even you probably imagined thirty years ago.

I well remember conversations with friends in Texas thirty years ago. They were convinced back then that we were on the precipice of having all our guns grabbed. It never happened. And it still hasn’t happened.

But there’s a problem- and that problem literally became clear to me in Texas 30 years ago…

I attended the annual gun show that was held back then in the old Astrodome. As I was leaving, three guys in their 20’s, their faces and necks covered in gang tattoos walked out the door and past the security guards. In EACH of their arms were cradled at least three semiautomatic rifles- Belgian FALs, AR-15s, etc. etc.

Does a free society have the right, in fact the obligation, to insist on background checks for people who wish to purchase firearms?

Not only yes, but hell yes.

Do you feel that current gun laws have rendered you incapable of hunting whatever wild game you wish to pursue, or incapable of mounting a defense of your own home or person?