---

Gun owners and defenders of the Second Amendment are constantly under attack from leftist organizations, politicians and their followers. Spewing misinformation throughout the national and local media is their major weapon. I witnessed this outlandish statement in a Letter to the Editor of a small town newspaper, published Dec. 19: "Except for SWAT Teams, even our law enforcement officers do not carry semi-automatic weapons." Of course, anyone who knows anything at all about the mechanics of firearms knows that our law enforcement officers all carry semi-automatic handguns, along with high-capacity magazines. They also often have semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. But the term, "semi-automatic" is now a major target of the gun ban movement. Why be concerned about the facts when you are attempting to destroy our constitutional right to own firearms?

I recently spoke with the owner of a major North Central Minnesota sporting goods business. He stated that 85 percent of the hunting shotguns, rifles, sporting rifles, and handguns that are sold to law-abiding Minnesota citizens are classified as "semi-automatic." Rather than vilifying the mechanics of a majority of commonly owned firearms, let's concentrate on establishing effective security measures for the nation's soft targets - colleges and schools, hospitals and clinics, churches, and other favorite targets of terrorists and mass killers. Each American's established Second Amendment rights and responsibilities are now more important than ever before in our history.[[In-content Ad]]

---