Editor:

Mr. Shear took issue with my Aug. 14 assertion that no other country on this planet has the individual freedoms the United States has. Certainly, no country on this planet has the Constitution/Bill of Rights the United States has. Since this is the case, I stand firm with my original statement. Mr. Shear was most incensed by my words,

“The people who have died here in America at the hands of fellow Americans with guns laid their lives down on the altar of freedom just as sure as any American soldier.” Point being that our freedoms are not free and any among us may be called on to pay up. My words were not so different from those of Thomas Jefferson who said, “The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Are these words of Jefferson just as, “wrong, shameful and despicable” as mine?

Civilian market, “assault style rifles” are not weapons of war since they don’t fire in a, “fully automatic” mode. Further, I don’t dress up in body armor nor strut. Due to a spinal cord injury, I’m a quadriplegic bound for the last 39 years to a wheelchair. Mr. Shear’s concept of who I am is as misplaced as his understanding as to why our founding fathers granted a free people to have a Second Amendment to start with.

Karl Schmidt

Farmville