“Hip-shoot-y.” Now there is a word I can add to my vocabulary compliments of Chronicle columnist Brittany Voie in her commentary March 15. Frankly I think her commentary about a statement made by Morton Police Chief Roger Morningstar is a little hip-shoot-y.
Morningstar was scrutinized fairly well by Voie for his public statement in regard to Initiative 1639. She pointed out that Morningstar declared that I-1639 violated the Second and the Fourth Amendments of our Constitution. Voie continued to seek information about Morningstar’s qualifications that would allow him to make such a statement.
One of the answers that Morningstar gave was that he took the “The Constitution Alive Course” and the “Second Amendment Primer” course through “WallBuilders.” As a long time follower and supporter of WallBuilders, I can say that’s good enough for me.
The founders of our nation gave us a Constitution that was purposely written so as a person with average intelligence would be able to read and understand it, yet somehow in recent history some have come to the conclusion that unless you have a degree in law you should seek professional council before giving a public statement.
In fact, some of you are wondering what makes this old ditch digger think he has the qualifications to weigh in on this subject. All I will say to that is thank God we have the First Amendment.
There are a few facts that we should remember from our high school civics class with the first and foremost being that our United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The oath that sheriffs and police chiefs take requires them to abide by the law of our state and federal Constitution.
No law approved by the state can supersede the rights described for us in the Constitution of the United States as well as the Washington state constitution. At least 20 county sheriffs in our state have recognized that I-1639 puts them in conflict with the oath they swear to.
In most cases, sheriffs and police chiefs have several years of experience in matters of keeping the peace, and realize that I-1639 will have no effect on reducing gun crime.
In some cases a lot of them would agree with this old ditch digger that some in our state and federal government will not stop with this madness until they disarm every law-abiding citizen one gun and one bullet at a time. Sheriffs and police chiefs are perhaps our last line of defense if we are able to keep our Second Amendment rights.
Voie goes on with concerns that those that speak out against the gun grabbers might suffer the consequences of putting the counties and cities in jeopardy of not receiving state funding and that insurance companies might choose to raise rates or drop coverage.
My concern is, if they muzzle up the sheepdogs, who will protect the sheep?
Bob Bozarth
Chehalis
