{"id":1100,"date":"2020-08-27T14:20:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T14:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1100"},"modified":"2020-08-27T14:20:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T14:20:36","slug":"august-27-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1100","title":{"rendered":"August 27, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<body>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I got a little distracted this morning.\u00a0 I read a letter to the editor in the Bozeman paper that I felt compelled to respond to. Who knows if they will publish my response but it made me feel better to write it.\u00a0 The letter and my response are below.\u00a0 That\u2019s all I got for today.  I\u2019m sure my level of disgust will be sufficiently elevated after Trump\u2019s acceptance speech tonight to get my pen motivated tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"483\" height=\"1024\" data-attachment-id=\"1101\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?attachment_id=1101\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?fit=567%2C1201&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"567,1201\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1598510802&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Gun-Control\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?fit=483%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?resize=483%2C1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1101\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?resize=483%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 483w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?resize=142%2C300&amp;ssl=1 142w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Gun-Control.jpg?w=567&amp;ssl=1 567w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I guess I am one of those \u2018deplorable gun-owning Neanderthals\u2019 referred to in the letter from Mr. John Trask, \u201cDon\u2019t be fooled, Dems will come after your guns.\u201d\u00a0 Although I am a gun-owner, I do take issue with the labels \u2018deplorable\u2019 and \u2018Neanderthal\u2019.\u00a0 I doubt if anyone who knows me would consider me \u2018deplorable\u2019 and, given that I have three college degrees and had a very successful career, I\u2019m not sure the term \u2018Neanderthal\u2019 is applicable either.\u00a0 Beyond the unwarranted personal attacks on responsible gun owners, he ended his letter with, \u201cnothing will stop progressives enacting sensible gun laws and removing all guns.\u201d\u00a0 I guess since he opposes \u2018sensible gun laws\u2019 he is for \u2018nonsensible\u2019 gun laws. But the statement \u2018removing all guns\u2019 is nothing other than blatant hyperbole and a lie.\u00a0 The right to gun ownership is enshrined in the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> Amendment in the US Constitution.\u00a0 Further, repealing a Constitutional amendment requires<strong>: \u00a0<\/strong>#1 \u2013 2\/3 approval of the House of Representatives #2 \u2013 2\/3 approval of the Senate #3 \u2013 3\/4 approval of the State Legislatures.\u00a0 The odds that that is going to happen are zero. And in a recent Supreme Court ruling having to do with gun rights<strong>, <\/strong>in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects an individual\u2019s right to possess a firearm for personal, lawful use.\u00a0 Given that there are more gun deaths and more mass shootings in the US, by far, than in any other high-income, developed country it doesn\u2019t seem unreasonable to want to at least have a discussion about what might be done to mitigate that problem.\u00a0 The unwarranted and untrue hyperbole propagated by the likes of Mr. Trask just make such a conversation all the more difficult to have.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a little distracted this morning.\u00a0 I read a letter to the editor in the Bozeman paper that I felt compelled to respond to. Who knows if they will publish my response but it made me feel better to write it.\u00a0 The letter and my response are below.\u00a0 That\u2019s all I got for today. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1100\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">August 27, 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7FBZO-hK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1102,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}