by Robert M. Traxler

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed a resolution calling many of you terrorists; certainly Ranger Rick and I would be near the top of their list.

My late father and mother, both WWII veterans, and my “life partner,” a retired middle school teacher and veteran (I would say wife but that is a sexist term to those on the San Francisco Board), are terrorists, really? According to them, anyone who is an NRA member is a terrorist. The resolution also suggests that any firearms owner is a terrorist. Yet one more example of the nonjudgmental left.

The resolution says that the U.S. is “plagued by an epidemic of gun violence” and accuses the NRA of using “its considerable wealth and organization strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence.” I have been a member of the NRA for 54 years, and fought terrorism in two decades in the Army, but who cares, let’s put yet one more label on honest law-abiding Americans who support and defend the Constitution.

I started to list the labels good folks on the left have for most of us in Martin, Hopkins, Moline, Dorr and Wayland, but it just got way too long. We know the basic issue of hate filled names: racist, sexist, homophobic, irredeemable, deplorable… terrorist.

The part when the resolution that states the NRA “incite gun owners to acts of violence” is puzzling. In decades as an NRA member I never read, heard, or viewed the NRA encouraging me to murder or assault anyone.

“All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence,” the resolution says. Well, only in the United States of America do we have a Second Amendment. Also, many third world nations have a fully automatic weapon or two in every home; the media doesn’t even bother to report massive murders in tribal violence on two continents.

The bill also urges the city and county to reconsider its relationship with companies that do business with the NRA. I am sure the left would have no problem with reprisals against business that do business with Planned Parenthood — fair is fair, right? The argument can be made abortion kills more Americans than firearms, many times more. The number of firearm deaths are around 40,000 per year, including suicide, and abortions around 630,000 per year.    The media are  mostly quiet, or support the San Francisco Board, but believe it or not at least two major media scribblers condemned the board’s actions? Damn! Could it be the left is now saying things are out of control? The left has always been a bit wacky and over the top in rhetoric, but when even the Washington Post and New York Times have writers who holler enough, perhaps it is too much? It took no time flat for the media to pull the columns with concerns of over reach and blanket condemnation of the actions of the San Francisco Board. Political correctness outweighs ethics in the main stream journalism every time.

We must ponder if the media and press can find or coin a pejorative label for most of you, Ranger Rick and I that tops terrorist? If you know of a vile hateful name for most of us that has not already been used, please let me know.