With air-sickness bags handy, I read Bruce Poliquin’s June 3 column, “Second Amendment right to keep, bear arms inviolate, not open to interpretation.” I don’t know whether Poliquin is a tea party member, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

I am deeply concerned that our state cannot afford another embarrassment who is driven by extreme right-wing ideology rather than what would be best for most of his constituents. His stance on the 2nd Amendment is a prime example.

The 2nd Amendment was written about formation of a militia for defense, before establishment of a standing army. This amendment has been distorted to its current interpretation. It is ironic that Poliquin bemoans “the casual disregard and dismissive attitude toward our Constitution as a relic of the past” while disregarding the obvious intent of the framers.

After two centuries of truncated precedence regarding gun ownership, however, there is no going back. No matter what the National Rifle Association leadership and the small percentage of gun wackos espouse, there will be no government confiscation of weapons and no national registry of gun ownership.

Multiple polls indicate that only the NRA leadership and a few members object to expanded background checks. Poliquin calls those who support expanded background checks “radical gun-control groups.” Seriously, there is no organization remotely as radical as the NRA.

Only someone with the intelligence of a garden slug could argue that there is any legitimate reason for mass possession of assault weapons, cop-killer bullets and over-sized ammo clips. The only purpose for such weapons is to massacre large numbers of people very quickly.

Lastly, Poliquin states the gun ownership is a “God-given right” — as if Jesus would ever own a gun or, for that fact, ever vote for a Republican.

Andrew W. Schoening

Waterville

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