Ever since the school shootings occurred in Colorado, American firearm ownership has been subject to a hostile, unrelenting, and merciless political assault from the Left. Guns have increasingly gained a dishonorable reputation for allegedly serving as despicable tools of terror and mass destruction, with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.<\/p>\n
But it was not always that way. I remember a time when guns represented the American frontier life: when it symbolized such romantic notions as hope, opportunity, rugged individualism, independence, self-reliance, and the ever intrepid pioneering spirit.<\/p>\n
Indeed, when I conceive of liberty, when I think of the noble statement, the sentiment, \u201cGive me liberty or give me death,\u201d I think of firearms and the sacred right to bear arms.<\/p>\n
I hark back to history. I see\u2014-and hear\u2014-the booming artillery barrage at Normandy, the storming of the invasion beaches in France.<\/p>\n
I see the doughboys rising from their muddy trenches, offering a heroic charge for liberty. Patriotism fills me.<\/p>\n
I see the gallant US Marine retreat at the Chosen Reservoir, in defense of the Korean Peninsula against fanatical Red Chinese Communist aggression.<\/p>\n
I see the flag rising triumphantly at Iwo Jima, proudly–gloriously–unfurling, bearing the colors that, to me, represent, liberty, capitalism and opportunity.<\/p>\n
In the words of my hero, General Douglas MacArthur, \u201cThrough the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, I shall always seem to see a vision of grim, gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following their sacred passwords of duty honor, country . . . still unafraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I gaze adoringly at a beautiful rifle, admiring it in my arms, I seem to see them, too. Then I think of John Wayne and Audie Murphy. I see the films, \u201cThe Sands of Iwo Jima,\u201d \u201cPatton,\u201d and \u201cFrom Hell to Eternity,\u201d playing incessantly in the mind’s eye. I think of Gary Cooper playing Sgt. York, shooting turkeys on the farm, and then later, imperialistic Germans on the battle-fields of World War I–the one to \u201cmake the world safe for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyway, that\u2019s at least part of what guns mean to me. They are a symbol–a romantic celebration of freedom\u2014-of life, property and sacred honor\u2014-for over 200 years of American history.
\nAmerica. The land of the free. The only nation in the world with firearm ownership specifically protected in its constitution.<\/p>\n
What ever happened to that glorious liberal tradition–to that chivalrous code of manly honor? The gun, the gun, the gun–oh, where have you gone?<\/p>\n
Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ever since the school shootings occurred in Colorado, American firearm ownership has been subject to a hostile, unrelenting, and merciless political assault from the Left. Guns have increasingly gained a dishonorable reputation for allegedly serving as despicable tools of terror and mass destruction, with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}