The state of Tennessee is where I attended college, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As the song goes, “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home to me, Good ol’ Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee.” The Volunteer State will forever hold a special place in my heart. Therefore, my heart was incredibly broken over the news from Nashville, Tennessee, that six people, three of them just nine years of age, the others in my age demographic, were the victims of a deliberate and targeted attack at the Covenant Christian School. The assailant in this attack was a 28-year-old female named Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who was under the delusion of gender dysphoria.

This disturbed individual took action after the passage of legislation in Tennessee, where the legislature voted to protect children from gender mutilation surgery, hormonal therapy, and puberty blockers. There has been a group on the internet asserting that Hale had no other alternative in order to be seen . . . a very confusing position. Are we supposed to believe that instead of understanding the rule of law and the legislative process within our Constitutional Republic, that someone is authorized to display their grievance by killing six innocent people? The Constitution grants us the right, in the First Amendment, to petition our government for redress of grievance. In other words, you have the freedom and the right to voice your opposition. You do not have the freedom or right to murder and assault people, destroy property, and commit acts of wanton violence in order to achieve your way. That is lawlessness.

We need to have an adult conversation about constitutional rights, erase the insidious emotions, and let’s attempt to reason. I must acknowledge that will be a bridge too far for some, mainly the progressive socialist leftists.

An ideological agenda does not equal or equate to constitutional rights. Furthermore, let’s be honest, rights should not be based upon individual behaviors . . . yes, that includes sexuality. Behaviors can change. Race, sex, creed, national origin, and religion are the basis of our individual rights, of citizenship. When I enter a room there are two very distinct qualities, or characteristics, that are self-evident: I am a male, due to my biology. And, I am Black due to my ethnicity, regardless of what a seemingly delusional student at Northwestern University thinks about “identifying” as Black. Those characteristics form the basis of the individual rights guaranteed to me by the Constitution. The fact that I like to work out and distance running are behaviors that do not result in further ascent or extension of rights.

If there are adults who wish to embrace a certain sexual behavior, they have the inalienable right to do so . . . their “pursuit of happiness.” However, that inalienable right does not negate or nullify the rights of others. Therein lies the issue of granting certain behavioral rights to a special interest group which can undermine the rights of others.

Christians have the freedom and right to believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Christians have the right to believe that the Judeo-Christian God — ya know, the one who endows us with our inalienable rights — created man and woman, regardless of the fact some struggle with understanding and defining what a woman is. We have the right to ensure protection for our children from what parents perceive as dangerous indoctrination, and what some medical professionals have classified as child abuse.

For whatever odd reason, we are witnessing a very radical LGBTQIA+ and perhaps they will add more alphabet letters. They have an agenda that seeks to undermine any principled, and constitutional, right to object, or oppose. Sadly, what happened in Nashville is a result of what could ultimately happen when gone off the rails.

Another discussion on Constitutional rights has to be the understanding of what gender dysphoria is: a mental condition. These are not the words of Col. West, but that of medical professionals. If that is the case, then how does an individual with gender dysphoria, which has medically stated symptoms such as depression and anxiety, find themselves able to go to five different gun stores and purchase seven firearms . . . and no one in the NICS system asked why is the same individual going to different locations to purchase weapons? On Form 4473, which is the background check document, the purchaser of the weapon is asked a series of questions. One of those questions asks about mental status, treatments, and other symptoms. If gender dysphoria is regarded as a mental condition, should said person be legally allowed to purchase firearms? And, we know that suicide is an issue among those with gender dysphoria.

No, the progressive socialist leftists started their deranged rhetoric about gun control immediately upon the news of the shooting in Nashville. In other words, a legal law-abiding gun owner such as myself is the problem, not any exegesis on the shooter and motive.

There will be those who will go apoplectic about this missive, but they will not seek to reason and debate the points brought out. They just want to suppress my constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression because what I just presented is unacceptable to them, and their ideological agenda. It is time we stop fearing leftists and say what needs to be said. I will not cower away. I will not surrender my constitutional rights, freedoms, liberties, and beliefs. I will not be intimidated by radicals of any type.

Will you?

Steadfast and Loyal.