FOAC Member's Message to NEW Gun Owners from Andrew Soltis

[Charlie T Waite]

Dear New Gun Owners, The past few years have been quite a roller coaster for all of us. We’ve had a pandemic, tumultuous elections, riots of all shapes and sizes, and in the cases of some of us, an assault of our very livelihoods. I’m sure you New Gun Owners have various views and opinions on all these and many other topics that face our modern culture. What you have in common is the active choice you’ve made in order to take responsibility for your citizenship by becoming a firearms owner.

While I don’t speak for all law-abiding firearms owners, I don’t believe I’m far from the mark when I say that we are all very excited for you to become a firearms owner. Choosing to become a member of the culture that takes an active role in their personal protection demonstrates your desire for more than just firearms knowledge but a desire for freedom that comes with real consequences. We balance these consequences with the consequences of passively allowing those that believe they can legislate behavior, and we choose the former. We do so because of a strong sense of self-determination that is instilled in all productive citizens of the United States. We believe that given the opportunity, we will be responsible for our success in life and we see the value in protecting that responsibility, not only for ourselves for those whom we love and wish to protect.

Being a resident of a democrat district, in a democrat county, I didn’t believe that I had much of a voice when I came to politics but that goes against the tenants I’ve listed above. Having a love for our constitutional amendments is not a democrat of republican issue. I became member of the Firearms Owners Against Crime. Doing so exposed me to a lot more of the actions being taken by those in office that would like to infringe on our second amendment right.

I began writing to my state and federal politicians. Being a registered republican and writing to only democrats, I didn’t receive many responses. However, I did receive a response for Senator Bob Casey. His response to my concerns about his positions on firearms were the typical misrepresentations and misguided solutions to our society’s problems with regard to violent crime. His position is that if we restrict law abiding citizens the result will be a reduction in crime, calling these restrictions common sense. Actual common sense would tell you that if your position is the prohibition of something, then the presence of it originally was what precipitated the results, i.e., if a firearm is present then a crime will result and if you remove the firearm the resulting crime will vanish. We know that crime is not the result of the presence of firearms. Therefore, the approach that firearms prohibition will reduce violent crime is not “common sense”.

In fairness to Senator Casey he does not explicitly call for firearms prohibition, I only use the example of firearms prohibition to illustrate the non-sensical application of common sense Senator Casey applies. Examples of Senators Casey’s “common sense” approaches are: universal background checks, bans on military-style assault firearms, ensuring safe-storage, and establishing risk protection orders to prevent those who pose safety risks to themselves or others from possessing firearms. None of these positions from the democratic left are new. All you have to do is have an honest conversation with anyone that has a basic knowledge of firearms and how they relate to crime and it won’t take long to dismantle all of these arguments. If some of these seem like solutions to you, I’m not surprise because they’ve been packaged to make you feel safe while making you blind to their real intent. Their intent is to remove your second amendment right.

Please have these discussions with those knowledgeable in an open, honest, and non-accusatory fashion and you will be so surprised at how much you will learn about firearms. It is the goal of legislators like Bob Casey to keep as many citizens as possible ignorant about firearms and the second amendment. As a new gun owner, you have taken a vital first step in combating this ignorance. Now it is your responsibility to become proficient with your firearms, learn what your legal responsibilities are when it comes to using them to defend yourself, and how to keep them out of the hands of criminals. All of us that are already on this journey of becoming ever-more responsible citizens are very happy you’re here and we can’t wait to share our knowledge and experience with you.

Andrew Soltis

soltis187@gmail.com