(Editor’s reply: My “name-calling” is meek and mild compared to the barrage of vicious name-calling and libelous personal attacks from the ultra-far-right in print, on TV and on radio. Such attacks, ridicule and outright lies are constantly aimed at President Obama, Democrats, any and all liberals, advocates of limited gun control and anybody else who doesn’t subscribe to the radical-right fringe. As an editor and a human being, I have a right – even a duty – to counter those hate-filled attacks with some name-calling of my own.)
Charlie Bunde, Sartell
Your opinion column is full of mean and degrading language. You use words and statements like, “belligerent NRA leadership,” “rabid,” “God-given holy writ handed down by Moses himself,” “hate radio” and “gun huggers.” Instead of all your name-calling, mean words and statements maybe you should be the bigger person. You fit the definition of a “bully.” You are a bully with a pencil and not a gun. You sit behind your desk and name call.
Your statement, “What is alarming is how some of these gun-worshippers actually think one day federal agents sent by Dictator Obama will pound on their doors and demand they turn over their guns” and “these people have seen too many Rambo movies.” Well let’s go back not too long ago in history and look at how Hitler managed to persuade his people to turn over all of their guns. After the Germans were disarmed, Hitler was able to commit those horrific atrocities against his people. I am quite certain if you are living under Hitler’s rule your pencil would not have protected. More than likely you would have cowered in fear or have been rounded up and imprisoned. To say, “these people give up their reasoning power in exchange for every paranoid conspiracy,” I say let’s just look at history, as it tends to repeat itself. Otherwise just look at Africa, the Middle East or the old Soviet Union and the ethnic cleansing that continue to take place. These victims have no means of protecting themselves or government that is able to defend them.