Got another response in the paper the other day. Here is what it says:
Editor, The Independent:
This letter is in response to the gentleman (Daniel Brewer) who felt the need to carry a
handgun to the Fourth of July festivities at McCurdy Park, as detailed in his Letter to the Editor on Wednesday, July 20. I don't see any reason to carry a gun to an event like that. You have several officers with guns there for protection. You can leave your gun at home. You are safe.
Thousands of people were there, and you were more than likely the only one packing a gun besides law enforcement. That should tell you something. I am all for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but carrying a gun to an event like that makes no sense to me. If I planned on attending an event I thought I may be threatened at - I probably wouldn't attend that event, and I certainly wouldn't take my wife and kids. You may feel more safe packing a gun there, but you make everyone else feel less safe. A gun to protect yourself at home, or recreational use - I am all for it, but toting a gun to a family festival, I am not for at all. So stop with the "my Constitutional rights were violated" stuff. The last thing I want to do is attend the Fourth of July celebration (which I was there, by the way) and have a bunch of people carrying handguns just to exercise their rights, or prove some kind of Point. I like to think I speak for the vast majority of people when I say please leave your guns at home if you attend the McCurdy Park Fourth of July celebration. Thank You.
Joe Bogue, Caledonia Charter Township
I have sent a reponse letter back to the Editor already. Here it is:
Joe Bogue wrote in response to my July 20th letter to the editor. My family and I feel the need to correct you an a few points Sir.
First, You stated that the police were there (McCurdy Park) armed for our protection. In the case of, Warren vs DC, the court ruled “…official police personnel and the government employing them are not generally liable to victims of criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection.” We are solely responsible for our own protection! A criminal will not wait for Law Enforcement to come to your rescue.
Secondly, There are over 2,400 people in Shiawassee county with concealed pistol licenses (CPL). Therefore, if you think I was the only armed citizen in the park out of the thousands that were there, you have mistaken. In fact, I know of at least one other person in that park that was carrying (although it was concealed). The odds are there were more.
Thirdly, You say that you support the Second Amendment, yet you tell me to leave my gun at home? Sir, bearing a firearm about your person is the very definition of the 2A. You say I should not take my family if I feel it might be unsafe. Tell that to Suzanna Gratia Hupp who went into a restaurant in Texas with her parents (should be safe enough), who were shot dead along with 21 others while her sidearm was in the car. Consider our two local citizens, one on the side of the road and the other at their place of business whom were murdered a couple of years ago. Each thought they were relatively safe in our community. Obviously, the police could not protect them. It could be any number of other people in this country who feel they are safe until a criminal invades their space. A criminal does not care about what the law says. They are lawbreakers. I say the “law abiding citizen” should have the upper hand!
And yes! My constitutional rights, no, YOUR constitutional rights were violated! The police “detained” me and refused to tell me why! The police broke the law, Sir, not me. They cannot detain you and not tell you why. That is a part of our 4th amendment rights.
Finally, I was not at McCurdy Park with my sidearm to make a point. I open carry everywhere I go every day (with the exception of work). I carry in every store I patron, walking down the sidewalk, to family functions, into the Secretary of State, and into restaurants for a family meal.
Since my letter first appeared in the paper, I have had overwhelming support from other citizens in the community, people whom I have never met and of all ages. They have been thanking me for standing up for our rights. Our constitutional rights. Our rights as Citizens of the United States of America.
Daniel Brewer
Armed American Citizen
Hmm... We'll see.
