>Baker City Herald | Baker County Oregon's News Leader

Criminal don’t get weapons permits

To the editor:

A brief comment on the recently discussed issue of firearms: I’ve been in law enforcement or professions directly related to it for 41 years. I have worked as a law enforcement officer in five different counties in two different states.

I have investigated numerous crimes in which firearms were used ranging from robbery to assault to murder. Most of what I have witnessed was in south central Los Angeles. In all that time, and with all of those crimes, I have yet to investigate even one committed by the holder of a concealed weapons permit.

Suspects using stolen firearms, yes. Suspects using homemade firearms, yes. The smallest number had actually purchased the firearm at a gun shop. But, again, none of the hundreds I have dealt with possessed a concealed weapons permit.

So real-world experience tells me that given the screening and training which precedes the issuance of a concealed weapons permit there is absolutely nothing wrong with that practice. To ban such permits will have very, very little — if any effect —on reducing crime.

Second point: Some recent comments in the Baker City Herald suggest that statements and promises made by candidates during elections should not be a cause for concern. I disagree with that completely.

If you don’t mean it, and don’t intend to do it, then don’t say it. Obama has said a great deal over the years about severely restricting the Second Amendment. Unless you are willing to concede that he is a liar then perhaps you ought to believe he will carry out his campaign promises.

I prefer to look at voting records, and regarding Obama and gun legislation, I have done just that. There is a reason why Obama and Biden are viewed as they are by those who value their Second Amendment rights.

Their voting records make it clear where they stand. As a law-abiding person with more than one legitimate reason to own and carry firearms, their actual record is one of many reasons why I didn’t vote for them.

No transmission line here, please
To the editor:
I am adamantly opposed to the Boardman to Hemingway Transmission Line Project that is slated to run through Baker County. Idaho Power must be prevented from constructing a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line on some of the most beautiful country in the American West. Oregon land-use laws were established to protect rural land from rapacious corporations and developers. I assumed the “green” bureaucrats in Salem wanted to preserve the spectacular beauty of our state, but that does not seem to be the case with this particular project.
People live in Eastern Oregon because it doesn’t resemble the incredibly overbuilt (ugly) and non-human scale landscape of urban America. James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Geography of Nowhere,” recently stated that “true localism, not the boutique localism of today, is inevitable given the peak oil crisis.” People are moving to rural communities for the first time in a century because they are fed up with the unmanageable, expensive and unfulfilling life found in America’s crowded cities and sterile suburbs. In emerging rural economies nationwide, local agriculturalists and other small business people are supplying their communities with essential goods and services.
Large energy companies are not interested in the future prosperity of rural communities, but are hell-bent on expropriating the last vestiges of open land in America for their own profit. Both sides of my family have cattle ranched in Eastern Oregon for many years and my ancestors would turn over in their graves if they could see what is happening to their beloved rangeland. Overgrazed land can be restored, but high-voltage power lines render valuable land permanently useless. At the very least, the transmission line needs to be located in a corridor outside of Baker County, where it is not highly visible.
If the transmission line is put in it will be a hideous eyesore that will irrevocably harm the economic future of Baker County. I am hopeful that the thoughtful citizens of Eastern Oregon will assist Steve Brocato, city manager of Baker City, in putting a halt to the transmission line project.

How many lies brand a man a liar
To the editor:
This letter is in response to some of the quotes from area Democrats in the article “Shooting down Stereotypes” in the Nov. 12 Baker City Herald.
Mr. Butcher said that “There have been comments made by Obama when he was in the Illinois Legislature, and by some of members of Congress, but for people to take political statements raised during the campaign and make financial decisions based on those statements is not too smart.” It sounds like you are endorsing his campaign statements as pure politics and not to be considered as promises to his supporters.
If that is the case, will there be tax cuts for the middle class, or should we not expect to see improvements in our health care? How many lies does it take to be branded a liar?
If all those campaign statements were not to be taken as promises to the American voters then who is it that is “not too smart?” To Ms. Swann’s statement: “I prefer settling arguments by inviting people in for chocolate chip cookies,” could I get your recipe for cookies? I’m sure they would be less expensive than a handgun, but I doubt as effective a deterrent when my family is being threatened.
But seriously, if you look up the meaning of a “true democracy,” you will find that we don’t live in one. In a true democracy, all citizens have the opportunity to vote on every form of legislation before it becomes law. Many of us in Eastern Oregon who feel our values are not represented in Salem wish we had a true democracy.
The bottom line for me is that I have new president. I didn’t vote for the man, but he is my president, and I will pray for him and the other leaders of our country for wisdom as they carry out the duties they were elected to do. But I think we will just need to wait and see if all those campaign statements were true or just rhetoric.