A Gun Maker with Ethics

  Utah gun maker Desert Tech took itself out of the running for a $15 million dollar gun deal with Pakistan, according to yesterday’s Utah Valley Daily Herald. The reason, according to Mike Davis, the sales manager for Desert Tech: they fear their guns would be used against Americans.

It gave me goose bumps to read the article. I thought that kind of morality was gone—that nobody in the business world had the patriotism to put country before profits. As my husband said, it’s enough to want to seek them out and buy a gun from them just to say, “Thank you!”

There are plenty of companies that have used the war in the Middle East to get rich. This company, however, was founded in 2007 on the principle of keeping America safe. As a young startup, you know they could have used the profits. They made a sacrifice for an ethical reason. I applaud them!

There is interesting history behind the whole issue of gun ownership. Without it we don’t stay free. Taking away guns is an early step to take away freedom, and we are well into the “taking away guns” phase. We can still physically keep guns, but the government regulates purchases and is now making ammunition hard to get. Next they want to register our guns. After that comes a deliberate threatening disturbance to create the excuse to take the registered guns. This pattern has ended gun ownership in many countries.  

How do you protect yourself without a weapon? A young woman who had been raped in a dark parking lot made an interesting comment on TV some months ago. Since her attack, she has become involved in the gun rights movement. She said she would have defended herself if she had been carrying a weapon. The media frenzy tells us we are safer if we ban guns, but her eye-opening comment was, “How can taking away my ability to protect myself make me safer?” That’s a lot to think about.

Gun ownership used to be part of being a man and an American. If you didn’t own a gun, you were irresponsible. Richard Henry Lee, an early freedom fighter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, said in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1788: “…to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them…The great object is, that every man be armed.”

Why would things have changed? Enemies are both foreign and domestic—from outside the country and inside. We still need to have guns and know how to use them. Taking guns from us makes us targets.

Back to the ethical decision of Desert Tech to put action behind patriotism, we compliment the company for putting the right thing to do above profits. Our Founding Fathers told us freedom and morality are intertwined—that both live together or both die together. We could use a lot more ethical behavior in the public square.  

The Power of One Against the Bully Gun-Control War

One man in Colorado has changed the national paradigm and the message has carried to Utah Valley. Victor Head, a plumbing contractor from Boulder, Colo., opposed Colorado's liberal gun control measures through his organization, Pueblo Freedom and Rights. With assistance from the National Rifle Association and concerned Colorado citizens in the state's first ever recall election, he unseated Liberal Senators John Morse and Angela Giron in their push for citizen non-protection. The nation has a new example of The Power of One.

In the mid-1950s journalist Willis E. Stone almost single-handedly piloted what would have been the Constitution's 23rd Amendment to the floors of Congress. First proposed in his newspaper column in 1944, it was known as the Liberty Amendment, designed to restore checks and balances and get government out of private business. That currently stalled amendment, approved by nine states -- Utah is not yet one of them -- waits to restore financial stability when we want it badly enough.
In both these situations, brave individuals stood up to the bullies that kill freedom, be they individuals, groups, or government. The bully war escalates today as constitutional freedoms fall before illegal executive orders and Supreme Court decisions on topics from immigration to gun control to economic bailouts. Conservatives across the country are being bullied into silence for their views, while liberal opinions are touted at will. Why? One reason is that conservatives let themselves be pushed around.
In many states, some citizens are still somewhat sheltered from the tirades of progressive bullies, like here in Utah County. The relative peace of this county draws many here to retire or raise families; hence, the nickname Happy Valley. The term denotes contempt from some, heartfelt gratitude from others, myself included.
Only Pollyanna could believe that our relative calm will continue. Activist commotions have begun -- Provo's Gay Pride event on Saturday, Sept. 21, is an example. While we are obliged to respect the rights of others, diversity is negative when a few in some circles encourage those who plan to abolish the values we cherish. Leaders in the gay rights movement, such as activist Masha Gessen in her speech to the Sydney Writer's Festival in May 2012, state the ultimate intention of the Gay Rights movement is to abolish marriage altogether. (You can view her video on YouTube from April 23, 2013.) Such movements strike at the heart of conservative Utah values of family and fidelity, not to mention common sense.
Can we keep the standards we cherish in Utah County? That's partly up to us, and that's where The Power of One comes in. While what we can do is harder, what we must not do is obvious: we must not be bullied into silence on our views and values. We must speak out in defense of the things that matter to us.

Guns

"We have four boxes used to guarantee our liberty: The soap box, the

ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box."

  Ambrose Bierce (1887)

In 1553, Frenchman Etienne de la Boetie wrote "The Politics of Obedience: Discourse on Voluntary Servitude." It reads like a 2013 conservative advice column. He said no one has power to oppress us unless we give them that power. The eyes to spy on us come from us; the arms to beat us are borrowed from ourselves; the feet to trample us wear homegrown boots. How can enemies assail us if they have no cooperation from us? He declares we can cast off tyranny simply by refusing to concede; those who resolve to be servants no more are at once freed. To topple a tyrant, simply support him no more.
Back to the bullying of conservative views and The Power of One: we are bullied into further silence because we remain silent. We are victims no more when we clearly, calmly, and without rancor state our views and hold to them. It begins at home, with one -- you; me. When we complain about the state of things, let us remember Boetie: "Resolve to serve no more and you are at once freed." The power of one voice, repeatedly heard, has the force to transform.

• Pamela Romney Openshaw is a Utah Valley speaker and author of "Promises of the Constitution" and "Lessons of the Constitution for Family and Home School Study." She writes the weekly column "Get it Right" for the Daily Herald and for heraldextra.com. To reach Pamela, you can contact her through her website, PromisesoftheConstitution.com or by email at promisesoftheconstitution@ gmail.com.

The Second Amendment: Gun Control?

Second Amendment: Granny Gatty and the Brewster Boys

Granny Gatty ran a gas station and used goods store five miles outside of town. She was an institution to the nearby townsfolk, all of whom had known her as Gatty since her little brother Tim, who couldn't say Gladys, had gifted her with the name. A widow for two decades, she was stubborn, independent, and openly admired by all who had watched her long, solitary fight to keep her business open and free of debt during hard times.

She had a few enemies, namely the two Brewster brothers, who had tried to take her place over for years. When they failed, they resorted to thievery. They had broken in several times, but Granny Gatty's legendary skill with the shotgun she kept loaded and ready had repeatedly driven them off. They were a constant worry, but she counted it one of the necessaries to stay in business.
She was visited one day in early summer by Frank, the local sheriff, who brought bad news.
"There are new laws afoot, Granny, that say ordinary people can't keep their guns; that the government is going to take them from us."
Disbelief flashed across Granny's face. "That's plain dumb, Frank", she cried, thinking of the Brewster Boys. "How can plain folk keep theyself safe without guns?"
"I don't know, Granny--it seems downright dumb to me, too. I'm hoping it's just a rumor."
"It has to be, Frank--no gov'ment would leave its people unsafe like that!"
The news continued as Frank visited throughout the summer, and it was not good. Granny's disbelief turned to fear and anger as she railed and stormed. "Frank, ain't there a law that says we got a right to our guns?"
"Yes, Granny, the Constitution says we do--it's called the Second Amendment."
"Well, then, they ain't no problem!"
"Yes there is, Granny--the government doesn't follow the rules anymore."
"This gun is my property, Frank! Nobody got a right to my property but me!"
"I know, Granny, but its building up to happen anyway."
"How am I agoin' to protect myself from thieves, like those Brewster boys? It's only my gun that drives "em away, Frank!"
"You'll have to call me when you need help, Granny."
"Call you?" she exploded. You cain't get here for 10 minutes, Frank! By then they'll empty the till and I'll be dead!"
"Granny, they plan to take everybody's guns, including the Brewster boys."
"Now you're talkin' plain dumb, Frank! Them boys is rascals! They ain't agoin' to give the gov'ment their guns! They'll find a way to keep "em, and I'll be the loser!"
Sheriff Frank told the truth. In the end, it was not the sheriff but federal agents that came to take Granny Gatty's gun. Stunned and furious, she refused, then protested vehemently, to no avail. With their authority, backed by threats of legal action, they took Granny Gatty's gun.
Three weeks later, Granny awoke to the sound of breaking glass and muffled footsteps in the hall. As her mind snapped into action, she rolled from her bed, her feet tangling in her white nightgown as she instinctively reached for the shotgun that always stood against the nightstand at night. In a flash of dismay she realized it was no longer there. Her gasp of anguish was cut short by shots from the hallway.
They buried her in the little cemetery up the hill from her store. On her tombstone they wrote:
Gladys Ruthy Osgood.
Killed by the men who took her guns.
• Pamela Romney Openshaw is a Utah Valley speaker and author of "Promises of the Constitution" and "Lessons of the Constitution for Family and Home School Study." She writes the weekly column "Get it Right" for the Daily Herald and for heraldextra.com/ To reach Pamela, you can contact her through her website, PromisesoftheConstitution.com or by email at promisesoftheconstitution@gmail.com.