Dear Senator Cruz,
I am from Austonio, Houston County, Texas we are rural community outside of Crockett-our only law enforcement is County and they are located in Crockett. This area is also the home to multiple prisons-minimum, maximum, work release, etc. My grandpa raised Quarter horse and it was nearly a mile to the highway, nearly 4 to the nearest neighbor. When I was a child we had an escape from one of the area prisons-3 rapists and murderers that somehow through the woods and pastures found the way to our ranch. Luckily it was and still is the norm that we always have a guns within easy reach (we have rattlesnakes and copperheads too). My grandfather and his foreman was able to hold the 3 men at gunpoint for the 45 minutes it took the sheriff to arrive, I cannot imagine what would have happened to us if we had not have had weapons available. These men have murdered a guard escaping so there certainly would have been no hesitation on their part.
In the area where I grew up every home had a gun leaned by the doors-front and back, every gun was loaded. As children we were taught guns were not toys and do not touch them. My dad, my grandfather and all of my uncles to the best of my knowledge as well as the families of my friends all slept with a gun within hands reach. Not one person including us children was ever shot “accidently” we were raised to never pick up a gun. During hunting season there was a gun in nearly every truck-teachers and students at the school-we also never had a school shooting. We played Cowboys and Indians with toy guns and bows, we watched violent cartoons like Roadrunner & Bugs Bunny-this did not turn us into killers. We also watched a million westerns with the shoot em ups which also did not turn a one of us into a mass murderer (or for that matter into a single murderer). Guns are not the enemy-liberal values are-we were also taught that you respect your elders, your God and your country.
As a grandmother with 4 grandchildren, 3 of which are girls-I have no intention that they be victims, so I thank you for your support of their 2nd Amendment rights to not be. Maybe instead of gun control people need to focus on the underlying reasons for mass murder.

Sincerely,
Victoria
Lovelady, Texas

http://www.cegunshows.com/GeneralInfo/2ndAmendmentStatement/tabid/65/Default.aspx

Five of the states that ratified the Constitution also sent demands for a Bill of Rights to Congress. All these demands included a right to keep and bear arms. Here, in relevant part, is their text:

New Hampshire: Twelfth[:] Congress shall never disarm any Citizen unless such as are or have been in Actual Rebellion.

Virginia: . . . Seventeenth, That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well regulated Militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free State. That standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the Community will admit; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to and governed by the Civil power.

New York: . . . That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well regulated Militia, including the body of the People capable of bearing Arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free State; That the Militia should not be subject to Martial Law except in time of War, Rebellion or Insurrection. That Standing Armies in time of Peace are dangerous to Liberty, and ought not to be kept up, excess in Cases of necessity; and that at all times, the Military should be under strict Subordination to the civil Power.

North Carolina: Almost identical to Virginia demand, but with “the body of the people, trained to arms” instead of “the body of the people trained to arms.”

Rhode Island: Almost identical to Virginia demand, but with “the body of the people capable of bearing arms” instead of “the body of the people trained to arms,” and with a “militia shall not be subject to martial law” proviso as in New York.

Dear Senator Cruz:

I am a lawyer in Texas, California and Colorado, and also a member of the bar of several federal courts including the Supreme Court of the United States. I studied the Constitution during my undergraduate years at UCLA and during law school at the University of Denver College of Law. I also interned in the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations under Senator Sam Nunn, Ret. I grew up in a family that possessed guns used for hunting and self-defense, if necessary. I was raised with an attitude that government should not be trusted, much like the Forefathers of our country. My family has been here for over 100 years longer than the United States has existed, at least as early as the arrival of the Mayflower.

It is with my background and education that I am truly outraged and disgusted at the flagrant attempts by certain members of the Democratic Party to eviscerate my inalienable right to keep and bear arms. I choose to retain my right to protect myself and my family from tyranny, for defense, for hunting, and for any other lawful purpose. The right to keep and bear arms is my birthright. The Constitution does not grant me such right but serves as a reminder that government may not intrude on my natural ability to preserve liberty. Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, and the individual states will not eviscerate my right because I will not permit it. And I am only one of many.
Sincerely,

Kory S. Booth