I would like to address the so-called faith community that gave us the ill conceived Measure 114. You have no idea of the harm you have caused yourselves, the rural people and the nation.

When I was discharged from the Marine Corps, after serving as a rifleman in Vietnam, in October 1967 I wasn’t old enough to vote. I turned 21 in August 1968 so I could in vote in the 1968 election. Before it was over about two and half million served in Vietnam. Those in the field were in a minority but the military did train everyone in which end of a firearm to point. At that time communism was the enemy and the communists had no love for churches. If they would have won and established themselves here there wouldn’t be any churches and many, preachers, and priests, would have been subjected to reeducation camps. Sending arms down the Ho Chi Minh trail for years about bankrupted China and the Soviet Union and they were glad to see it end too. The Korean War was the first direct confrontation with communism.

After Vietnam the rise of radical Islam was the reason for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Again, the radicals like ISIS and Al Qaeda have no love for Christianity. Your churches are open and no one wears a burqa because some went into battle and opposed it.

Being in battles and firefights should, you would think, qualify as live fire training but Measure 114 doesn’t recognize these experiences as qualifying. The medals handed out for valor and wounds, Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Silver Stars and even a Medal of Honor doesn’t seem to be enough for the lift every voice people. They need to take a gun safety course.

Over the years I decided to quit buying Chinese junk at Christmas and birthdays and bought seven lever action .22s for my grandchildren. I passed a background check every time and paid the fees. I got a concealed weapons permit when Bill Clinton started down the gun banning road. Fingerprints, background checks and do it all over again if you change an address.

If you want to pass an antigun petition you can do it easily. Just concentrate on the blue streak along I-5 and don’t waste time gathering signatures in rural Oregon. The colleges are a good place to gather some signatures.

There are lots of history deprived 18-year-olds there. No chance of telling them why we have a Second Amendment. I keep hearing how we all have to communicate and get along but communicating with the urban left is just a myth like a unicorn. There seems to be some kind of mental block. I think we have passed that time anyway. We see things in mirror images. The danger with this law is that across the nation Democrats will be saying, ”look what Oregon did, we can too.” Not good. It will only make the divide worse. The urban rural divide is not just Oregon. You can google up polls and find out that 43% of American thinks we are on the road to civil war. This law will increase those numbers. Things like two more counties expressing their desire to leave Oregon and join Idaho goes unnoticed , especially among the Gen Z crowd, the 18-years-olds. I guess that stands for phone Zombies. Text 300 words a minute and get your news from Tik Tok. Back in the Vietnam days it became fashionable to say if you are old enough to fight for your country you should be old enough to vote. Of course 99.9% would never get close to a hostile bullet but it became the law of the land. So, now the Phone Zombies vote to make me take their hairbrained gun safety course. My first gun safety course was years ago, maybe 60 years, when Oregon passed the hunter safety legislation. Take this course or you can’t go hunting.

This law needs to die a quick death. One avenue of approach to killing this insane law is for a special session of the legislature. It’s time to send a message to the Republicans. You gained enough seats to stop Kate and Tina’s supermajority and I want you to stand firm. Not one damned dime spent until this law is repealed and throw in the one from last session that says if somebody steals my gun I am liable for what they do with it. If not, extend the law to say if a carjacker steals your car you are liable if he kills somebody while eluding the police. The lawsuits being prepared for the Supreme Court need to include veterans as a class. Live fire training for them just shows the complete ignorance of our city cousins.

The urban/rural divide is more than just geography. The left thinks if you ban guns there will be peace love and harmony. Out here we think if there is a danger you should kill the killer. You can watch almost any news channel and eventually you will hear about the drift toward civil war. Civil wars aren’t civil. Might be time to consider another approach rather than just pissing people off to make you think you are getting more secure.

Steve Culley

La Grande