Sheriff addresses local gun owners

Sheriff Ken Furlong addressed a group of 23 gun rights advocates Tuesday evening to talk about gun control as the issue begins to heat up on the national stage.Furlong first listened to questions from the assembled group before speaking to all of the questions.“The problem is mental health,” Sheriff Furlong said.In many, if not all, mass-shootings nationwide, the individual has been mentally disturbed and, much of the time, hopeless, Furlong said. Once a person loses hope, there is little else to lose.When it comes to mental health, Furlong told the group the three key issues were affordability, accessibility and trust.“We need to engage the problem, mental health,” he said.Guns, he said, are the means of delivering the problem but not the problem itself, he said.One of the other issues Furlong addressed was the idea that guns would be taken away by the federal government. The Fourth Amendment, in conjunction with the Second Amendment, will prevent that from coming true. Furlong pointed out that the due process clause of the Fourth Amendment protects gun owner’s rights just as much as the Second Amendment does.“I have no belief, whatsoever, the federal government has any ability to restrict your rights under the Constitution” he said, adding that he thought no one in the room would be impacted by gun-control legislation.“I cannot enter your house without due process,” he said.Furlong said he is in favor of closing the background check loopholes.“We need to have one (background check) rule for everybody,” he said. The other issue Furlong brought to the forefront is gun locks on weapons, which could reduce much of the intentional and unintentional violence, especially when children, young and old, live in a house.“This has caused people on the right and the left to go to the extreme,” Furlong said.