The events since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has highlighted the lack of education of our youth.

Our youth are being dragged into protests over gun ownership, I believe, without the understanding of what they are protesting.

Somewhere along the line it appears that our youth have missed being educated on the history of the United States and the Constitution. The battle for the United States separation from Great Britain was fought by the citizens. It was the use of their firearms and their tenacity that won freedom for the United States. Without the citizens and their personal firearms there would be no USA.

The importance of the citizenry bearing arms was addressed by George Washington in his “First Annual Address to Congress” with the following statement: “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”

George Washington saw the necessity of the citizens bearing arms which our Founding Fathers thought should be protected in the U.S. Constitution. They included the protection of one’s right to bear arms in the 2nd Amendment with this phrase: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Our youth should be in the classroom learning the history of the United States rather than protesting. They should also be taught the background around the founding documents. Today it appears that they have missed the education on the background to our founding documents that explains the U.S. Constitution and the purpose of each of the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution.

The push for control of guns is an infringement upon the citizens’ rights and freedoms granted by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution. We must pushback or we will lose our freedom to own the firearms of our choice. There are already to many laws limiting the type of firearms that we can own. I agree that there are many firearms that should be limited but no semi-automatic weapon ownership should be limited in any manner.

Ray Shamlin

Rocky Mount