Dear friends,

It's a pleasant late summer afternoon here in Virginia, with a mild breeze caressing the trees and the flag, and the late afternoon sun highlighting the determined faces of the men of the Marine Corps memorial across a lush grassy lawn from where I sit.

The inscription of the monument reads "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue," and the list of engagements inscribed around its circumference begins with "Revolutionary War."

And as I reflect on the sacrifices of that generation of young men, I consider how lucky I've been in my life. Born in 1970, I never lived my conscious life in a crisis situation, where I was faced with the prospect of putting EVERYTHING on the line for a cause, for what's right and just.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines "valor" as "strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness," or "personal bravery."

I ask myself, "am I a valiant person?" It's a hard question to answer when it hasn't been posed by perilous times.

But I feel that we are entering perilous times in this nation, as we as gunowners are being systematically demonized and legislatively harassed by measures such as AB273, S.2525, and so on. The very rifle slung over the shoulder of that young bronze Marine over there, reaching eternally to support our nation's cherished emblem of freedom, has been deemed an "illegal assault weapon" by the state of California. At every turn, the very skills possessed by those men before me forever hoisting that flag, skills that won the freedom of the world from tyrants, are being delegitimized and scorned.

Will the gun-haters finally mobilize the armed force of this nation to confiscate the freedom tools of its citizens? Only time will tell. But if that time should come, when this nation turns on itself to strip away the last vestige of the basic human right of self-defense, I hope that I can call forth a fraction of the valor that the brave men memorialized here called forth time and again on behalf of their nation and of freedom around the globe.

Best wishes, and happy Independence to all.

-Michael Pelletier. -- Self Defense: A Basic Human Right, http://www.dd-b.net/RKBA/