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Where’s the common sense?
Well, gun owners knew this was coming: Another call for “common sense” gun control, another call for a gun ban. The trouble is, I have no faith President Joe Biden knows what he is talking about. He has a history of terrible advice on firearms for self-defense.
Remember his quote when saying why no one needed an AR-15? “I said, ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out and put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house.’”
Another piece of terrible advice: advising police officers that, “when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something,” they should shoot the person in the leg. Knives are weapons, that makes them armed.
Now a bill by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, H.R. 127, would require firearm owners to purchase firearm insurance costing $800 a year, complete a psychological evaluation and a government training course. This will include a mandatory and publicly accessible registry listing the owners name and where they keep their firearms. If someone fails to do this, it’s 10 years in prison and fines of $50,000 to $150,000. I do not think the criminals will comply or participate.
Biden wants the country to be safer? Do not tie the hands of the law enforcement community. Effective border security went out the window with a stroke of his executive order pen. Drugs pour across our borders. The cries to “defund the police” are getting louder from the left. Gangs in the big cities shoot each other every weekend. The color of a bandana in your back pocket can get you killed. Where is the common sense? I think we have bigger problems than attacking law-abiding citizens and the Second Amendment. Let us work on those.
Terry Shortt
Amherst
Moving on
I glanced at the Feb. 12 BDN column by Phil Harriman and Ethan Strimling the other day. I can’t read it anymore since Harriman thinks Trump won. But at the end of the column Harriman thinks we should move on from the Capitol riot and Trump’s instigation of it.
I think the BDN should move on from Harriman.
Oskar Feichtinger
Orono
Winter camping advice
I am compelled to praise Aislinn Sarnacki’s winter camping article (BDN Feb. 13-14), an activity. I have enjoyed for 20 years now. The article offered solid advice. Rosendel Gerry’s preference for a tarp lean-to is well advised. After my first time, I switched to that option, not so much to see stars as he mentioned, but to see what just made that noise. Several times, it was an owl
swooping in to snatch a hapless creature. Most often, the visitor was too large to be bothered
by anything. It also provides the warm benefit of the campfire and a more primitive experience
plus a lighter load without a tent.
I would like to offer some other options. Public Reserve Lands offer more remote sites
near fresh water (melting ice has a much higher water content than snow). I also suggest going
to these places solo; the sense of self-reliance and solitude can be profound. I could go on but
will just add that these places are where I have enjoyed the most night visitors — one site
seemed to be the crossroads of the entire region. There, I kept things to a minimum and was
there for quite some time.
Do not go solo without prior group winter camping experience and doing serious homework as well as some conditioning. As the article suggested, start in your own backyard first but let your neighbors know if you are going to have a campfire. Be safe.
Keith Dunson
Belfast