I don’t know how many of you noticed this in Tuesday’s paper, but I was incredulous:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/12/18/news/state/24-gunrestiction.txt

I’ve written (along with Kathleen) the following letter to both Baucus and Senators:

December 19, 2007

Dear Senators Baucus and Tester,

We noted with incredulity the January 18 Billings Gazette report of your recent joint letter to the Interior Secretary urging him to lift restrictions on people carrying weapons (concealed or otherwise) on to or through national parks and wildlife refugees. Your reasoning seems to be that these are “public lands,” and that it is a infringement of a citizen’s constitutional rights for the federal government to deny the carrying of weapons on “public lands.”

Is not the U.S. Capitol building part of the public lands overseen by the federal government? Do you plan to introduce a resolution in the Senate allowing citizens to bring guns into the U.S. Senate building or into your offices? The White House? The Supreme Court? Or what about the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial, etc.? Was the Oklahoma City federal building not “public land?” Once you start opening up “public lands” to any politically or emotionally disturbed character who wants to make a violent statement, increasing numbers of people are going to victims of those claiming they have a “right” to carry weapons wherever they wish.

Many of your constituents in Montana do not agree with the NRA’s (and evidently your) archaic position on the Second Amendment. We are utterly dismayed by your pressure to expand the opportunities for Americans to kill or maim others under the cover of exercising their constitutional rights.

Sincerely,

David Grimland
Kathleen Ralph
53 East Ridge Road
Columbus, MT 59019

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David Grimland and/or Kathleen Ralph
53 East Ridge Road
Columbus, MT 59019
home phone & fax: 406-322-1117
eMail: ortam@usadig.com
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