The remarks made at the Gun Appreciation Day rally held at Diamond Park on Saturday were thought provoking and patriotic.

I felt safe among so many law-abiding citizens who I knew were armed.

They were gathering together in a peaceful way, and they were exercising their First Amendment right (the right to peaceably assemble) in order to protect their Second Amendment right — the right “to keep and bear arms.”

Many speakers gave noteworthy comments that I never had considered, and others offered ideas that I had considered in the past. Here are some:

1. The Second Amendment is the guarantee of all of the constitutional amendments, a guarantor of all our other civil rights. It isn’t just about guns; it is about the gradual erosion of all of our other freedoms.

2. The Second Amendment never was intended to be put in the Constitution for the right to shoot a deer. It was intended for an armed citizenry to guard themselves from a tyrannical government.

3. Bill Been, author of “Masters of Audacity and Deceit,” listed Communist goals for our country as discrediting the American Constitution, discrediting the American Founding Fathers, and belittling all forms of American culture. He said many organizations, including the United Nations, want eventually to do away with all of our guns.

4. If the United States military has a right to bear a weapon, we as a citizenry have the same right to have the same small-arms weapon, and the military should be at strict subordination to the civil power.

5. Many of the tragic cases of illegal shooting in public places, such as in schools, were committed when the perpetrator had been using psychotropic drugs. These drugs given to the mentally ill can have tragic side effects.

As a concerned citizen, I felt the breeze of liberty blowing in the wind on Saturday at Diamond Park. Standing in the park with the gun-bearing citizenry who are preserving our freedom was a choice experience.

There are enemies of this country both foreign and domestic at this time. The good people at Diamond Park on Saturday didn’t want to transform America. They want to preserve America and our freedom.