Life is Good – 2nd Amendment

Life is good. Today, on a whim, I went to a gun show. I was thrilled, as I am around like-minded people. It was held in Maine’s capital city, Augusta. It was more than fun. It was uplifting, but also sobering, rather ironic, sadly instructive, because of our times.

Augusta is where, for 30 of the last 32 years, a Democrat legislature has tried to take 2^nd Amendment rights away from Mainers, who always push back every time.

Growing up in the woods north of Augusta, in a town of 500, we used rifles and shotguns regularly. In our teen years, indeed, well before, we learned responsibility.

In sixth grade – long before we (officially) learned to drive – we learned to handle guns responsibly. Moreover, we were taught in our little town’s elementary school. There, all who wanted it got NRA Safe Hunter training, and we suddenly felt older.

Later, we would learn other things, but first we learned to be trusted with – and to trust ourselves with – a firearm. In different environments, we then practiced.

Boy Scout camps around the state – which were then thriving – taught us how to become proficient with .22s, allowed us to compete, getting better and better.

In the woods, or fields carved from them, friends and I would sling clay and take turns shooting, always with a sense of responsibility for the shotgun and for safety.

Some kids built strong, strategically placed tree stands, hoping for a deer each fall, while others hunted – different era – partridges and pheasants. We had no turkeys.

The point is, just growing up in Maine, we learned life skills. These skills were good in themselves and taught higher lessons. We were – or I was – commissioned to rake leaves, shovel snow (including off the roof), cut and split wood for our three woodstoves, plant, weed, and harvest, eventually drive, and use firearms.

Every home – and I do mean every – had garden and leaf rakes, snow and wood-handled, round-point shovels, spades, axes, a sledge and maul, shotguns and rifles. The last two were, for us, kept in the living room and always respected.

In those days, kids were expected to learn things that today’s kids are not. We knew how to drive a stick shift, many a tractor, learned before the official permit and license. We knew hard work, homework, and housework. All came before fun.

Most boys, together with many girls, knew how to handle a gun. Later in life, as the twists and turns of things happened, I ended up training in the Navy on a 9mm Glock, worked to be proficient, and eventually earned my “E” for “Expert.”

But now I come back to Augusta, Maine, home of our National Guard, but also of a radical leftist legislature and sadly out-of-touch governor.

The current Democrat-dominated state government has tried repeatedly to take Mainers’ treasured 2^nd Amendment rights, beginning last August with a completely unconstitutional “red flag” law, mocking gun rights: If you did not like my Trump sign, you could call to have my guns taken. That law, Mainers killed.

Then comes the latest onslaught of anti-constitutional rubbish, a new “red flag” referendum, which they cleverly phrase – like the twisting of our Voter ID law – to strip Mainers of their constitutional rights again.

To that, they have added an unconstitutional 72-hour wait period for firearms, thankfully stayed by a Maine federal judge, but with the radical Mills-Frey-Bellows-Pingree Administration trying to undo the stay and rip rights away.

Nor is that the end of it, the anti-gun madness – like mad cow disease in Europe – attacks Mainers from within. Democrats allow Maine colleges to persecute students who argue for common-sense gun rights, those who defend the 2^nd Amendment. They double-team Mainers, attacking magazines and ammunition.

That is why today’s visit to a local gun show, populated by men and women, parents and kids, people who understand their rights, who respect the flag and what it stands for, who honor our Founders and are forever grateful – lifted my spirits.

Scratch a real Mainer, and most of us up here are that, and you will find someone deeply faithful to our core rights, none more than our 2^nd Amendment rights.

So, in Augusta today, in the shadow of those who want to oppress our rights, I enjoyed mine fully. I talked with those who care about gun rights, and bought an old bolt-action .22, the exact type that I once shot at Boy Scout camp. Life is good. We have to fight if we want to keep it that way.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!