Here is email from Michael Curtis candidate for representative 45th district which he gave me permission to post. If you would like to contact his email is:
michaeldancurtis@gmail.comThere are not a lot of issues that I have a stronger stance on more than R2BA and the Constitution. For me it’s a clear choice. You have the RIGHT to self-protection from violence. Be that violence from crime, or from the government itself. To ensure you have that right, you must be allowed to own and use firearms. These are not laws that have been made to "allow you" the right, the constitution is clear in limiting the Government's ability to reduce your rights, or remove them. The second amendment wasn’t about hunting, our forefathers were not sitting around and thinking “gosh one day we may need to protect the right to hunt” in fact, they understood liberty and its inherent ties to the right to bear arms. Richard Henry Lee observed that “to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms.” This was codified in the constitution for that reason.
For me it’s not just a statement of personal protection that the right to bear arms provides. Rather it goes deeper, it’s a fundamental value that subconsciously defines us as a people. I lived in Mexico for a short time, but long enough to learn what was the root of the countries failure, it was rooted in the idea that everyone had lost the concept that they were the people, and the government was there at their behest. In the 70's they lost their right to bear arms, and since then they have become subjects. Subjects to overt unmitigated corruption, subjects to economic and military oppression. The words "federales" has a subtext of "the oppressors" and they are feared by everyone who doesn't pay them. These are the people that were promised to protect them, but now act as an arms of the local cartel.
This is the end result of a nation that loses its right to strike back fear into the minds of its oppressors. I am a very big supporter of our military, local and federal law enforcement, but I do fully understand the every officer, every agent, and every soldier understands that he is protecting the citizens of a nation, a nation that can if the need arises, fight with, or against an oppressor of our freedoms.
This is not to say that I would not be willing to negotiate for better gun reform. BUT to be clear, it needs to be a honest reform. It seems that people have kept calling for "compromise" but actually wants "limited surrender". Compromise is where two opposing parties don't get everything they want, but get some things in return. What the anti-gun crowd wants is to take some of your rights, and prevent you from expressing your rights, and in return you get to... continue observing some of your rights... for now.
We can change a few things, modernize a background check system and even possibly make some valued efforts to restrict purchases from people that have lost thier constitutional rights, but just banning guns that are scary looking is ineffective, and only works to solve the “do something” crowd. Their approach is to create an illusion that guns are bad, "because these scary ones are illegal" and is a part of thier overall goal to undermine gun ownership Real change would include easier access to hearing protection devices such as the silencer, streamlining the process of purchasing some NFA devices, and clarify the right to conceal carry in certain high risk areas. I have developed a solution that uses block-chain based technologies to proactively transfer "legal liability" while preserving individuals privacy. This would allow for FTF transfers in a way that a person could still perform a background check, BEFORE the transaction.... then using a "proof of authorization" token could then "transfer" the liability of purchase to the seller. This could eventually be the singular system that is used, and resduce the overhead of record keeping by gun dealers while still protecting the gun owners as it does not keep a database of ownership but rather a "ledger" or authorization transactions (meaning they would know you purchased a gun, but would have to contact the individual to get information on the gun that you purchased, and that would require a warrant)
When not with my kids pointing camera at something, building some new gadget, or pointing one of my Telescopes into space. I am also an avid gun collector, sports shooter, and have a breath of knowledge about guns. While I won't go into its how many I have, I will say the collection and the Telescopes (some of my scopes are pretty large) take up a small room. I believe that anyone who wants to pass gun laws should probably at least know the difference between a MAC 10 and an Uzi, or know the difference between an M1A and a M14.
Now in full disclosure I will admit something, I don't like AR15's ... sorry I just don't like them. Their gas impingement system made perfect sense in the AR10, because the burn rate of a 7.62 would ensure that even a 14 inch barrel would burn pretty clean. When redesigned to a 5.56 configuration it’s just a dirty gun that requires a large amount of modifications to make it a perfect gun. If you have to have an AR15, I would suggest and Sig MPX Virtus. I recently received one and it really fixes many of the issues with the AR15. However I get the value of the "lego gun" and have a few configurations I built myself (300BLK, 458SOCOM)
My personal choice would be an IWI Tavor, but then again I have always had a fascination with bull-pups.
I hope that I have answered your questions. Thank you for your time, and please consider getting involved in the campaign.