Town Hall and Honorable Governer McAuliffe,

 At a time when our nation is at its most vulnerable state, to try and disarm the people is absolutely insane.  No law-biding citizen carries a gun to do ANYONE any harm. They carry it because they want to protect themselves and those they love from people that will NEVER follow the law, those that will wage war in the name of religion and those mentally ill people who see no other alternative in their mind then to murder innocents who can't defend themselves. It's a known fact that terrorists attack "soft targets" as a matter of choice because they will be able to do the most damage when no one is fighting back or there is little resistance. What you are proposing is simply turning state buildings into Softer Targets. 

 It is an insult to say that we cannot protect ourselves and someone will do it for us! Who is going to do it for us? Law enforcement? They are "first responders" not "stop it before it happens".  They try their best with what they have, but they cannot be everywhere at once, it's just impossible. They intervene whenever they can but they don't have an all-seeing eye to tell them where to go before someone gets shot.   

 I am a retired Marine of over 22 years who has been in combat and my gun has saved my life on MANY occasions and the lives of many others as well. Imagine for one minute, a world where everything is equal and everyone has a gun, do you really think there would be even a fraction of the incidents there are now? Bad people will ALWAYS have guns......ALWAYS. So why on Earth would you try take them out of the hands of GOOD PEOPLE and deny them their constitutional right as a citizen of this great country? To paraphrase a good friend of mine (also a Marine who served in combat) who said he hates carrying a gun all the time but he feels it is his duty to do so and be like a shepherd protecting the flock because he has the skills to do so. 

 Your political party and agenda should have no bearing on such an important topic. We have all seen how well so called "gun safety legislation" has worked in the past. It has made people in this country afraid of guns instead of educating them on the subject. High-level politicians proposing gun-control bills continually speak incorrect information (publicly) about weapons because they haven't even taken the time to do some actual research on what they are talking about.....really? There are several videos of people in cars running over crowds of innocent people (that's a 5000lb weapon and more powerful than any handgun) are we going to ban high capacity gas tanks now or vehicles in general? Seriously take some time to think about that, because that’s what is proposed over and over. 

We need to move forward to make our residents safe; this will surely set us back in the wrong direction. I urge you not to pursue this and to seek alternate means to combat this tough problem of mass-shootings and crime against law-biding citizens. Educating the public is key to making strides against these crimes and acts of terror however, at times when that fails those in the public that don’t carry a gun are going to cower and pray that someone else close by (a shepherd) does.

Respectfully,

Eric Slachter