GUNS: Violence not tolerated

After reading some of the opinion pieces in Friday’s Press condemning the presence of armed citizens protecting businesses in downtown Coeur d’Alene, I am reminded once again of how complacent we have become as a society when it comes to maintaining law and order. The “bad apples” like Officer Chauvin in Minneapolis notwithstanding, I believe most police officers are good people, and they make tremendous sacrifices to keep our communities safe every day.

Five years ago, Sgt. Moore made the ultimate sacrifice for the citizens of Coeur d’Alene. But I also recognize that the police can’t be everywhere at once. Recent riots in many major U.S. cities have seen the police overwhelmed. And in places where the National Guard has been called to help keep order, the soldiers are typically carrying unloaded weapons, and the looters know it. Dr. Eric Heidenreich’s suggestion that armed citizens on our streets are “racist vigilantes” (an old fallback for the lefties) for exercising their constitutional rights is simply outrageous.

As a well-armed Idahoan who supports his fellow citizens in these endeavors, I suppose that makes me a racist vigilante? And I laughed at Barb Crumpacker’s claim that people were “cowering in their homes” because of armed citizens on the streets. Apparently, Ms. Crumpacker is OK with the prospect of rioters causing mayhem, property damage and economic destruction in our community. But God forbid that good citizens care enough about their city to show, through display of arms, that violence will not be tolerated here!

For those delusional enough to believe that ANTIFA is not a militant, anarchist organization, you must have missed the festivities in Portland, Ore., in the last few years. Citizens have a Constitutional right to protest — peacefully. And citizens also have a Constitutional right to bear arms — to maintain that peace. Let’s keep it that way.

TODD KAVANAUGH

Coeur d’Alene