Hundreds rally in Redmond for Second Amendment rights

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday at the #WeSupport2 Rally at Redmond City Hall, seeking to show their support for the right to bear arms.

Filip Zalesky is a Bend resident who attended Saturday’s rally. He said he and his family left Czechoslovakia when he was just 10 years old.

Zalesky said his family lost everything due to communism and socialism. For him, the right to bear arms means the right to his freedom.

“I’m really proud to be an American, because when we did immigrate, we were fortunate to have our freedom. Ad that’s all we needed, was our freedom,” Zalesky said.

The rally was hosted by the Ladies of Lead Group Therapy in an effort to not simply defend their rights to bear arms, but take an offensive and educational stance on the Second Amendment, plus voice a strong opposition to IP 43, which if passed would restrict the production and ownership of what backers call assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“The IP 43 will affect a lot of people in a lot of very bad ways, and by outlawing a lot of these firearms that women use for personal defense, hunting, or sport shooting will really leave our state vulnerable,” said Sharon Preston, the founder of Ladies of Lead Group Therapy.

Preston said they want to focus on education efforts about the Constitution, how firearms are made and the difference between various styles of guns.

Rally attendee Susie Fagen-Wirges said she was a victim of domestic violence. She wants people to learn and understand what it really means to own a gun and have the basic right to defend yourself.

Several years into a marriage, she learned her ex-husband did not love her and he became violently abusive.

“Within five years, I had a gun to my face, a knife to my throat, black eyes…that’s not love, that’s sickness,” Fagen-Wirges said. “When you are subject to that kind of terror, you never want to go through it again and having a gun, gives me that feeling of safety.”

She said it shouldn’t be about blaming the gun, but that people should come together to focus on mental health issues and support programs. The hope is the discussion should be centered around facts, history, education and training efforts.

“I don’t think that everyone should have a gun, if they don’t want a gun, they shouldn’t have one,” Preston said. “But if I want to have a gun, they shouldn’t tell me I can’t.”

For someone like Zalesky, whose family fled a country that at the time took their freedoms, the Second Amendment means more than just owning a firearm.

“We need to keep our roots as Americans and not change anything and that’s what I hope,” Zalesky said. “I don’t want to start losing our privileges and freedoms.”

According to Preston, similar rallies were held in Sandy, Salem, Medford, Eugene and Pendleton.