Dear Editor
I'm a kook?
I am curious as to why someone would make such an insulting accusation against hundreds of thousands of law abiding, tax paying Canadians they don't know personally ("Take away guns, people turn to knives," Regional Optimist April 17)?
I am a 38-year-old father of two who is married to his high school sweetheart. I have no criminal record, pay all my taxes on time, volunteer in the community and have chosen a career that is centered around the care of the elderly who are unable to care for themselves.
Does any of that sound kooky?
I am a legal firearm owner. I have taken training courses offered by the RCMP, I have had a criminal record check done plus a mental background check done, both of which are clear.
Yet still you claim to all your readers that I am a kook?
Why?
Is it because I enjoy skeet shooting on the weekends with my wife and daughter? It's an exhilarating sport that takes lots of practice and patience to master, much like skiing, playing pool or throwing darts.
Is it because, when it is available, I would prefer to harvest an animal for meat that has lived its entire life in freedom, eating nothing but wild grasses and grains as opposed to animals brutally treated, filled with drugs, steroids and antibiotics then crammed into tight living quarters before being slaughtered?
With my method the deer doesn't even hear the bullet coming before everything goes black. I can only hope that when my time comes it is as quick and painless.
That doesn't sound kooky to me.
Maybe you think I am kooky because, as a hard working taxpayer, I find it hard to rationalize more legislation and tax dollars spent enforcing laws that further restrict my skeet shooting and hunting to appease voters who think these sorts of laws will curb violent street crime.
You must be intelligent enough to realize that street gangs who smuggle illegal guns into this country and ultimately use them for robberies and murders have nothing to do with the many legal gun owners in this country. Yet people such as you continue to criminalize us and call into question our intelligence.
Wouldn't it make more sense spending those tax dollars fighting street crime and getting those guns off the street rather than attacking someone like myself?
The people who legally own shotguns for duck hunting aren't robbing the local 7-11 with them.
Would someone who purchases a Porsche, capable of exceeding the highest speed limits in this country, be considered a threat to society or kooky just for owning something that could be used to break a law or kill someone?
Speeding kills more people than guns do. That's a fact.
That being said, I can't imagine you would look at your neighbour as a new threat to the peace and safety of your neighbourhood just because he bought a sports car. I am sure you would also agree the fact he now owns the car hasn't changed fundamentally who he is. It doesn't make him more likely to intentionally cause vehicular homicide. He doesn't become psychotic or violent.
What if he bought a brand new shotgun because he wants to learn how to shoot skeet?
Is he a kook now? Are his values fundamentally changed?
I think that a journalist such as yourself would do yourself and your readers a disservice if you don't properly research your future articles or think twice before insulting the intelligence of a large portion of this country just because their legal, extracurricular activities differ from yours.
I am asking that you do the right thing and acknowledge that your comments are insulting and uncalled for by writing a follow up article. Not doing so would unfortunately jeopardize your credibility in future articles.
A journalist without credibility is soon unemployed.
Do the right thing.
Nevin Berning
Cochrane, Alta.
