6208 Shadowcreek Drive
Carmichael, CA 95608
November 20, 2005
Honorable Senator Dianne Feinstein
Hart Senate Office Bldg Ste 331
Washington DC 20510
Dear Senator Feinstein:
I recently came into possession of your letter to Mr. La Porte (attached) and
feel compelled to comment.
Your reason for owning a hand gun, for what ever purpose, is a matter of
personal choice and, therefore, not subject to the scrutiny of others. Unfortunately,
the notion of reciprocity, with the possible exception of only a few, is not shared
by anyone in Congress and also not by millions of Americans as well.
For me, foreign born, it was always clear, most poignantly clear, what the
true purpose and the real essence of the Second Amendment were designed to
be. I know that neither Charlton Heston nor NRA's hierarchy as well as its entire
membership know what the true purpose and the real essence of the Second were
designed to assert.
I have no illusion that my words to you here will fall on understanding ears,
but nonetheless I must speak. For miracles do happen, sometimes when least expected.
Perhaps you will find discovering the true reason for the Second Amendment intriguing,
maybe even scintillating.
The key to understanding the true purpose and real essence of the Second
Amendment comes from a reply George Washington made, when asked whether
he would
accept the kingship. "No, no," he had said, "we
are all going to be
kings." In referring to the Declaration of Independence that all men are created
equal, abolitionists before the War Between the States sought to prove slavery to
be
unconstitutional. "Therefore," they continued, "the black man has a right
to keep and bear arms, and since the keeping
and bearing of arms is palpably
inconsistent with slavery, slavery is shown to be unconstitutional."
You see then that the underlying implication of the right to keep and bear
arms, unmolested by the will of anyone, especially government, is shown to define
the concept of sovereignty. The God-given, not a man-given, right to keep and bear
arms was intended to declare, to affirm, and to impose personal sovereignty upon
the American citizen, the only citizen ever to have so been defined. Hunting, target
shooting, and self-defense, even against a predatory government, although most
clearly inclusive to the Second Amendment, were never the primary reason for
inserting that euphoric codicil into our Constitution.
It might be of some historical interest to you to learn that Colonists preferred
the word liege, not the word sovereign. "We are liege," they most assertively
proclaimed, "we are liege, in vassalage to one thing only, in vassalage to justice."
Justice had been that one and only feudal overlord to whom they sworn fealty and
obeisance. It had made the American Republic, the Great Republic, truly
one-of-a-kind, the only true republic to ever have existed.
The ancient Israeli Theocracy is the only other
one-of-a-kind form of
government that ever adorned the pages of history. The Second Amendment then,
Senator, if its primary reason had always remained in focus, would have kept the
Great Republic alive, the American citizen sovereign, and, therefore, his government
to remain his duly appointed servant.
Please give these things some thought, because I fear for this country. I hear
the war dogs are barking and some strange spark might light the fires of discontent
and engulf the Nation in terror. From personal observations I can truthfully say that
those who spawned the fires of discontent, without exceptions, are usually the first
to pay the price of having been incautious.
We all understand that guns, like all weapons, can be and
are used during
criminal
activity. But terror like this can be resolved only with the gallows, not by
disenfranchising
law-abiding citizens of their Constitutional right. I am certain you
understand
that the invocation not to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms is
directed
at government and enjoins it not to molest the Militia's and the peoples' right
to own
firearms.
So then, Senator, if you can understand that slaves do not
own firearms, that
only
free men do and do so because of an inherent, an inalienable, right, then you
should
understand the spirit patriots follow in an effort to enjoy the very blessings
the
Founding Fathers had sought to secure here not only for themselves, but also
for them
that would follow.
You said you own a firearm. The reason for owning one, as I
already said,
is your
affair and does not depend on anyone's approval other than your own. I too
own a
firearm and wish to have the same right reserved for me. If you have only
a faint
remnant of that old American spirit left within you, if you consider yourself
to still
be an American, then you will do whatever lies within your power to arrest
the
madness now plunging the Nation into the abyss.
Respectfully,
Dieter H.
Dahmen
Dear Mr. La Porte:
Thank you for writing to me about my permit to carry a concealed weapon.
I would like to take this
opportunity to set the record straight.
I possessed a concealed weapon permit for a short time
beginning in 1976.
In
the mid-1970s, a terrorist organization -- the New World Liberation carried
out two attacks against me
and my family. In the first, a bomb was
placed outside
the window of my daughter's bedroom. It detonated but
did not explode. We were
lucky:
the weather was particularly (and unusually) cold, and the explosive they used
didn't
explode in below-freezing temperatures. In the second, they shot out the
windows
of
our beach home. My husband was terminally ill with cancer at the time.
Later,
some
of the members of the New World Liberation Front were arrested, and the
threat
abated.
At that point, I had the gun -- and several other weapons that were turned
into the police-melted into a cross, which I presented to Pope John Paul II when
I visited Rome in 1982.
Currently, I do not possess a gun, nor do I have a permit to carry a concealed
weapon. I hope this addresses what you may have heard on the subject. If I can be
of additional assistance, please do not hesitate to call my Washington, D.C. staff
at (202) 224-3841.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator