Paul Castilleja

Regarding the amount of bills that are being produced from the anti-gun activities at the Oregon Legislature, it is quite evident that they are trying to enslave the law-abiding citizens of Oregon.

Even if passed, they will never accomplish it.

They are now attacking the law-abiding citizens who have every right under the Second Amendment to defend their rights to keep and bear arms.

The evidence has been overwhelmingly in favor of the interpretation that the drafters of the Second Amendment deliberately intended.

The specific words they chose to use — and with the specific words they chose to organize those words into one long sentence — to recognize the existence of both a “collective” and an “individual” right of the American people to keep and bear arms.

For years it has been quite evident that the National Rifle Association has been taking considerable heat in the popular press for its unyielding defense of the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms, whereas all along in steadfastly denying that the right existed, the proponents of banning guns were, and continue to be, wrong.

I am convinced, unequivocally and unquestionably, that the Second Amendment ratifies and preserves for every citizen the right to keep and bear arms — moreover, that Congress or any other instrumentality of the federal government is constitutionally barred from infringing on that right.

Regarding the Second Amendment, Thomas Jefferson said: “The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.”

We are at that pivotal point of self-destruction. We will defend the Second Amendment.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur stated: “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

All the time to produce bill after bill for gun control eventually will lead to the enslaving of our citizens, and all along we’ve been unsuccessful in keeping the criminals and the mentally ill from acquiring guns.

I only hope that lawmakers will reconsider these bills as not worthy of passing. Instead, give law-abiding citizens their freedoms and rights to bear arms.

Paul Castilleja is a member of the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners.