Be An Informed Gun Owner  by Tom Rood

You may have heard that in most elections, only about 65% of registered voters bother to vote. The standard answer is “My vote won’t count.” The thing is, there are many elections won or lost by a handful of votes. In one local election a while back, the votes tallied came to a tie. In that election, there was one write in candidate- “Micky Mouse.”  That voter could have decided the election and threw it away. The vote was decided by a coin toss at the board of elections.

Yes, your vote counts. One time my wife and I were going to be away, so we mailed in our ballots. Our Assemblyman won that election by just six votes. Yes, your vote counts. There are many examples of close races resulting in recounts because the election was too close to call.

Why am I bothering you when elections are months/years away? Because it takes time and money to get the word out. What’s the word? INFORMED! Gun owners are not informed as to what is happening behind closed doors in Albany. If they were, perhaps a few more might be motivated to vote. If a few more gun owners voted in the last Governor election, Mr. Zeldon would be our governor, and Ms. Hochul unemployed.

Things you should know about your Second Amendment rights:

Right now, in Albany, legislators are considering bills that would:

1-Limit you to purchasing only one firearm in 30-day period

2-Require you to have 2-year firearm safety training certificate with need to be recertified (read retrained) every 2 years

3-Require you to have 1 million in liability insurance for firearms in your possession

4-Establish a 10-day waiting period after NICS check before firearm can be delivered

5-Establish a 5000-foot gun free zone around schools (5,280 feet = 1 mile). If Mennonite and other Christian schools are included, we might as well figure Yates County becoming a gun free county.

6-And over 20 more anti-gun bills pending.

I am asking you to help get this word out. Talk it up with anyone you know that owns a gun. Any kind of gun. Because if we let Albany and Washington have their way, your ownership and use of firearms will be history. There are billionaires out there financing people, elected officials, and influencing/controlling MSM (main-stream media) to accomplish this goal. You would have to live on Mars not to see what is happening to our Second Amendment Rights.

I began this column several years ago with the idea of influencing gun owners with information about issues that could interfere with their constitutional right to bear arms. I added First Amendment issues later as it became obvious that amendment was being used to influence anti-gun agitators. At the same time, I am advocating non-violence using the ballot box as our method of preserving our way of life. It’s on the line like never before. Trump is in office for four years. What happens in the next presidential election? A lot, maybe most, of what Trump is accomplishing can be lost just as fast.

Be informed, be involved. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”