This letter was sent to the newspaper on February 28, 1989. It was not printed.

The Forum c/o
The News Leader
Editorial Page
Box C-32333
Richmond, VA 23293

Dear Sir,

Well, another General Assembly session has come and gone. Once again we saw an example of people trying to convince others that they really do perform some type of useful function.

Every year these people come up with new and creative way to raise our taxes, but, of course, it’s for a worthy cause (THEIRS!). Isn’t it amazing how quick these folks are to spend someone else’s money? They also come up with new laws to try and make up for the old ones that obviously haven’t been working like they were supposed to.

I’ll tell you one thing, I am scared to death of these people in the General Assembly. It is beyond my ability to understand how people who have the know-how to get themselves elected to their positions can be so out of touch with reality. Every year they take away one or two more personal freedoms that we as Americans have a right to enjoy. Every year they raise another tax to pay for some other UNNECESSARY pet program. And, of course, this year they seek to protect us from those individuals who go to legitimate, registered gun dealers and spend Five-Hundred dollars, or more, to buy guns to rob us with. Apparently so they can get back the money they just spent on this expensive weapon.

I know I feel a lot safer knowing that criminals can no longer purchase their weapons in Virginia, how about you folks? This law, like many others, is a joke and an insult to the intelligence of any rational, thinking Virginian. However, we all know that rational thinking is in short supply at the General Assembly. I can’t imagine an Oprah Winfrey show that exhibits more blatant emotionalism than a session of the General Assembly.

What really scares me, and what all Virginians had better wake up to, is the fact that this idiocy won’t stop here. Every time the General Assembly gets away with further restricting our freedom they will try again next year with another pet project to take away another freedom. If you haven’t been paying attention to this trend you had better wake up and smell the coffee, before they restrict the use of coffee (it has caffeine you know).

What many people are overlooking is one simple fact, gun control laws, any gun control law, ultimately lead to one thing and one thing only, GUN CONFISCATION. This means from honest citizens as well as criminal types. That’s right folks, each year these people will whittle away at our right to buy and keep firearms of any type until they eventually pass a law that we must turn over all our firearms to the government or face prison.

Now the fact remains that the only people who will suffer because of these laws are the law abiding citizens who have respect for the law and who don’t see prison as an occupational hazard. Criminals, simply by virtue of what they do, will not adhere to any law, much less gun laws. Now we can’t place all the blame on the General Assembly. We continue to tolerate this behavior from our elected officials. As long as we sit idly by and allow them to continue to take away our freedoms we must accept the blame ourselves. The first thing we must do to remedy this situation is to remember. Remember what your representative voted for and against and come next election let him or her know what you think. The one thing all members of the General Assembly have going for them is that we tend to forget who did what to us last year.

You had all better come to the realization that the members of the General Assembly don’t think that we are smart enough to take care of ourselves or make the right decisions for our own safety and well being. Therefore, they legislate those decisions for us. How much longer are you going to accept this attitude from these people? I resent someone telling me that I have to wear a seatbelt for my own good, or that I can’t purchase a certain type of firearm without certain restrictions applying. Those who like to refer to the Constitution had better read that document sometime. Nowhere in it does it say that the General Assembly is in charge of legislating our daily routine for us.

The government, both State and Federal, is restricted in it’s scope of involvement in our lives. However, those who sit in the General Assembly would have you believe otherwise. They want you to believe that it is their job, yea their responsibility, to make our decisions for us. As long as you allow them to continue with this course of action they will take away more and more from you. Ask yourself, What’s the last positive thing the General Assembly did for our personal freedom? The answer should frighten you.

My hope is that objective, rational thinking will prevail at some point in the future of the General Assembly. I realize that this is expecting a great deal, but I must have hope. In the mean time please fellow citizens, WAKE UP TO THIS FARCE AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Yours for freedom,