Dear Sen. Rampelberg

Re: HB 1237 - gun bill

Dear Sen. Rampelberg,

I am greatly dismayed at your sponsorship of this bill.

At a time when the State Legislature has historic fiscal problems to solve during their too-short legislative session, we truly do not have time for a bill designed to make a sarcastic political point.

For me the bill goes beyond inappropriate waste of time and leans into the zone of ghoulishly dark humor in the wake of the tragedies in Arizona last month.

I have to say I am not a big fan of last year's health-care reform bill, not because it has too much government control, but because it doesn't go far enough to rein in the root cause of our health care crisis -- an entire lightly-regulated industry, specifically protected by law from anti-trust laws, whose profits increase when sick people are denied care.

Furthermore, it is important to note the fact that the individual mandate idea came from the Republican side of the aisle, from a host of Republicans in Congress who proposed the idea as an alternative to President Clinton's proposals in the 1990s. One of the original proponents of the idea was Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa... who was for it (it was his idea in fact) before he was against it.

Our State's most vulnerable citizens are counting on you as a legislature to create a budget that will not abandon them.

I urge you to focus on this state's serious fiscal problems, instead of lending your support to pointless bills with HB 1237.

Thank you.

Curtis Price
Rapid City