LETTER: Stand up to federal overreach
After failing many times to get gun control legislation passed through Congress, the Obama administration is now bypassing the legislature and the constitutional rules that restrain him to enact new draconian gun control legislation.
President Obama’s executive orders grant, among other things, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms the power to mandate background checks for any transfer of firearm ownership, and expand the FBI’s powers of background checks into the private lives of citizens. He has also stated that desire to see the expansion of Orwellian style tracking systems installed on firearms.
It is important to note, that none of his executive orders would have prevented many of the mass shootings that have tragically hit our country, such as the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting and the jihadist attacks at Fort Hood and in San Bernardino.
These executive orders do one thing: radically expand the power of the federal government and the notoriously anti-gun Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms over the rights of the citizenry.
The solution is simple. It is time for the state of Montana to show the federal government that it will not comply with unconstitutional policies imposed upon it by a rogue executive.
Today, when radical Islamic terrorism has crossed our borders and threatened the safety of our communities, it is imperative not only that citizens be armed for both self- and national defense, but also that the federal government not inhibit the ability of the citizenry to defend themselves.
This action by this president is another example of how it is of critical importance that the state of Montana has political leaders committed to the absolute protection of our Second Amendment rights and the ability of our state to nullify federal power grabs.
I pledge that if chosen by the citizens to serve in the state Legislature, that I will be one of those bold leaders that stand uncompromisingly in defense of the citizens’ right to defend their life, liberty and property with the tools the Second Amendment grants. —Taylor Rose, Columbia Falls, HD3 Republican