Lee McGee

On May 9, while waiting for the attendant to issue me a permission slip to enter the Cypremort Point State Park, I took time to read the rules and regulations which apply to all park visitors. One of these in particular caught my attention:  No guns allowed in the park. 

Please note: 1) Rights predate government. 2) Rights, akin to breathing, require neither permission nor acceptance to exist. They exist, and are often most evident, while being violated. 3) Like it or not, the Second Amendment is a right, equal to freedom of speech and religion. It enumerates ”the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” 4) The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled the police have neither the duty nor the responsibility to protect you (or me and mine, in this case). Their job is to keep order and arrest those who have violated the law (It’s not to prevent citizens from being violently harmed or killed). 5) Criminals, predators or wackos (by definition) do not, will not and cannot be made to obey the law — any law (not even one posted on the Cypremort Point State Park regulations sign. Surprise! Surprise!) 6) If the Cypremort Park rangers or any other law enforcement personnel visiting the park, find it necessary to be armed while in the park area (see No. 5), why would anyone think this 65-year-old man would be better served by being disarmed in the same park area? When law enforcement personnel are sworn in, they are not issued some magic dust by the state of Louisiana which gives them superpowers ordinary mortals do not possess. Nor are they suddenly gifted with a Jedi-like mastery of arms ordinary sovereign citizens could not hope to achieve.

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The nation watched the TV coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, as local, parish, state and federal officials refused to grant shelter to law abiding citizens seeking only refuge from the storm, unless they yielded their only means of self defense against armed looters. The “Second Amendment Foundation,” Gunowners of America and the NRA were a few of the NGOs which filed suit against Louisiana, New Orleans and the federal government to prevent such citizen disarmament from ever happening again; FYI, they won! 

Perhaps you’ve never noticed the posted regulations at Cypremort Point State Park. I find this violation of my basic God-given right to defend myself and my family inherently offensive. One hopes that state Reps. Taylor Barras and Simone Champagne, and state Sen. Troy Hebert find this constitutional violation equally offensive; and work to eradicate such nonsense from the books.

“When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his sense of morality or losing his respect for the law.” — Frederick Bastiat