Editor:

The National Rifle Association and the gun lobby want us to live in fear. If they scare us badly enough into believing that any vote for gun control is a vote to take away our right to bear arms, then they believe we will be cowed into voting for their ideology.

The NRA, however, does not represent the will of the people. No matter how much money that group throws at our politicians, its scare tactics, ultimately, will not prevail. We the people do not need money to go to the polls and vote. We need only the strength of our convictions.

Many of our elected officials, on the other hand, recently gave in to the NRA’s fear tactics. On Wednesday, April 17, these U.S. Senators voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales and checks to screen out potential gun buyers with mental illness.

Why are the people whom we have elected to represent us so afraid?
The NRA sent me a 2012 Wisconsin Candidate Questionnaire last year. I refused to return it because of the “yes-no” format which did not allow for honest and thoughtful answers. But I did send the NRA a letter because of a statement highlighted in bold in the cover letter that accompanied the questionnaire.

The NRA wrote: “If you choose not to return a questionnaire, you may be assigned a ‘?’ rating, which can be interpreted by our membership as indifference, if not outright hostility, toward Second Amendment-related issues.”

As a hunter and gun owner, I was compelled to respond to the NRA’s outrageous assertion that if I dared not to return its candidate questionnaire, I would be branded as openly hostile to the Second Amendment.

Who does the NRA think it is? The voice of the people? Advocates for our Second Amendment rights?

This is our country, not the NRA’s. We the people value our freedom just as we value our right to be safe from fear. Fear comes in many forms, from the heavily-armed individual who kills our children while they attend school to the groups that spread false concerns in order to promote their agendas.

Take a look at the politicians who receive funding from the NRA. Then on Election Day, when you have the chance to stand up to the false fears under which the NRA wants us to live, go vote.

Susan Sommer, Phelps