United States Marine Corps Corporal Joshua Boston has written an open letter to California Senator Diane Feinstein explaining why he will not be registering his firearms should her bill be passed. “I do not believe it is the government's right to know what I own,” he writes, “Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime.”

In the aftermath of the horrific shooting by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month, Senator Feinstein introduced legislation that would reinstate and strengthen the expired 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. The bill bans the sale, transfer, importation, and possession of ‘weapons of war’, as well as big clips, drums, or strips of more than 10 bullets.

The law, if passed, would not be retroactive, but grandfathered in to “protect” current gun-owners. However ... the only way people will be allowed to legally keep their firearms would be to register them with the government, as well as be photographed and finger-printed. Does that sound an awful lot like getting arrested to anyone else? Then what would happen to those records? Would they go into a database? Would they be available for criminal investigations? Because that’s not cool.

Corporal Boston is one of the many Americans not happy about the possibility of such legislation becoming law, so he penned a letter to Senator Feinstein to remind her that it is she who serves him, not the other way around.

“I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America. I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.”

The corporal was also not shy in calling out Senator Feinstein’s hypocrisy in enjoying the protection of armed guards while decrying the public’s right to the same as a crime. He writes, “I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.”

I want to give this guy a hug and buy him a beer. He hits the nail on the head about the ‘good enough for thee, but not for me’ attitude prevalent in Washington. If guns really are evil, why do these politicians have armed guards? They should be more careful -- they might shoot their eyes out.

Do you think legislators should give up their armed guards before demanding that we give up our own weapons?


Image via Official U.S. Navy Imagery/Flickr