To the editor:

The right to bear arms has played a crucial part in our nation’s history and in shaping the American way of life. That is why our founders enshrined this in the Bill of Rights, immediately after the right to free speech.

We use the Second Amendment to protect ourselves from harm wherever it comes from to make ourselves and our families safe. The Biden-Harris administration has urged Congress to pass common-sense gun legislation coupled with soft-on-crime policies. The Democratic Party uses feel-good titles for their legislation to hide the reality that it doesn’t make Americans safer.

The Democrats know they can’t repeal the Second Amendment like they secretly hope for, so they put their efforts into banning weapons for arbitrary cosmetic reasons and at the same time making it as costly as possible for the firearms industry to conduct business. We shouldn’t be banning the manufacturing of firearms or ammunition in the U.S., if anything we should be encouraging the manufacturing of goods at home. This is more relevant now than ever before as the North Country continues to deal with the flood of illegal migrants taking advantage of the Biden-Harris border failures. Despite all the laws passed in Albany, these criminals are still able to get a gun in their hands; law-abiding Americans should have every right to defend themselves without infringement. This is why we need to elect more Republican leaders such as Elise Stefanik and Donald Trump, who will work to secure our border, enact tough-on-crime legislation that will keep criminals off the streets, and back our law enforcement officers who work tirelessly to do so.

Nicholas Avery

Dickinson Center