Arthur Schofield (Your Views, Jan. 29) questions my thinking on Second Amendment guarantees in the Bill of Rights. He suggests that restoring the basic applications of the Second Amendment that Oklahomans enjoyed until only the last few decades will invite problems. His assertion plays to the oft-used excuse that the free exercise of our most essential right as Americans will only create lawlessness and blood-in-the-street scenarios. This doesn't square with the facts.

I've lived in several states with open carry laws. None of Schofield's assertions hold up in those states. Further, we heard these same arguments during the debate about our concealed carry laws. They never happened. Law-abiding Oklahomans will surprise Schofield about how law-abiding they are, just as they've shown in the past 15 years with our concealed carry and other gun laws. Sadly, Schofield then resorts to the opinion that it doesn't meet his desires and that it makes people nervous.

What's next? If someone regards my words as making them nervous, will they take away my freedom of speech? We should never willfully surrender, through nervous fear, what the government is prohibited from taking away from us by the Bill of Rights. Such surrender is what will really be asking for problems.

State Sen. Steve Russell, Oklahoma City