Published: April 14, 2008 04:40 pm            

Letters to the editor - Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Right to bear arms must be preserved

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world without guns. Although many people think of this as peace, gun control and peace can never coincide.

Many people believe that a full, government-enforced gun control would cause the crime rate to fall drastically. However, that is not the case. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, all of the current gun regulation laws have not lowered the crime rate. Although gun control would successfully take the firearms away from law-abiding citizens, criminals would not turn in their guns because they would already be breaking other laws. Why would they decide to follow this law? Gun control would, in turn, endanger the very people it was designed to protect.

The Second Amendment states that “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” That does not grant us the right; it only says that the right will not be taken away. Therefore, we have the right to bear arms aside from the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton, the first United States secretary of the treasury, said, “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” The right to own and use a firearm is a right that not only should not, but it cannot, be taken away by any man, government or army.

Ben Sanders

Greentown

Thank you for your patience with rebate

Statements have been made that the Howard County property tax rebate checks have been delayed so the county could accumulate interest. These statements are totally false.

The truth is the checks have been delayed due to the processing time required. The statute is written in a way that could encourage errors which could mean costly county lawsuits. The auditor has gone over the list of homesteaders many times trying to get it right and be sure that everyone who had a homestead exemption on March 1, 2006, receives a check or a credit on unpaid taxes.

As far as the interest is concerned, the money has been invested the same as all other county monies. Whatever we can earn in interest offsets the need to use tax money. The interest collected on the rebate money is being used to defray costs of processing and mailing the 23,000 checks. This was not planned; it just happened.

Last year the county earned over $2.2 million in interest. I have made a special effort to invest all county money in a manner that brings back the highest return we can get and still keep the money safe and secure. All interest collected helps to pay the costs to operate the county and hopefully keep taxes down.

The homestead rebate checks were being released last weekend. We are as glad as you are! Thank you for your patience!

Martha Lake

County treasurer

        

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