Bearing Arms with Pen in Hand, Colorado Author Takes a Stand

By D.Craden

March 2013  -  (Broomfield, Colorado  -  As the gun control debate rages, Colorado author, S.R.Claridge, remains unmoved in her stance that guns will continue to play a big role in her novels.  “I believe in upholding my Constitutional right to bear arms in life and my Constitutional 'write' on paper,” Claridge wrote on her blog.

Author of the Just Call MeAngel mafia suspense series, as well as the controversial, House of Lies, and award nominees, No Easy Way and Petalsof Blood, guns are an integral part of Claridge’s stories.  “I write murder mysteries and my weapon of choice is a gun,” Claridge explains.

Claridge doesn’t just write about guns, she is a gun owner and enjoys going to the shooting range with her parents and her husband.  Before choosing which guns the characters in her Just Call Me Angel series would carry, Claridge went to a shooting range and handled several different guns of all shapes and sizes.  The 357 magnum is her favorite.

“Owning a gun doesn’t make me a risk for shooting someone any more than owning a car makes me a candidate to run someone over,” Claridge blogged.

Stating that she doesn’t disagree with the idea of increasing background checks, having buyers pay for their own background checks, banning online certification for concealed-carry permits and banning certain assault weapons from public consumption, Claridge makes no apologies and adds,  “In the end, American citizens have a right to bear arms and that should never change.”

One Colorado bill Claridge does not support is to limit magazine capacity, which inevitably will remove companies, like Magpul, and send jobs out of Colorado.  Claridge calls the magazine-limits bill ineffective.  “We all want to save lives,” she states, making mention of the fact that Colorado suffered two of the deadliest mass shootings in US history, the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School and the 2012 Aurora Theatre shooting.  “But no law is going to fix crazy.” 

She said she’d like to tell Governor Hickenlopper and House Representative Fields that radical anti-gun action won’t solve the problem.  Claridge openly expresses her strong opinion that revoking a citizen’s right to own a gun will only stop law-abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves.  “Despite the law, criminals will keep their weapons, just like they keep their drugs,” Claridge said.  “Instead of limiting magazines and removing jobs from an already struggling economy, why don’t we create more jobs by placing armed guards in our schools state-wide?  Now that’s a law I’d support,” the author said.

She believes the idea behind fixing the problem is simple, but the application is hard.  “Get rid of the crazy people because guns don’t kill anyone…people do.”

Regardless of what laws are passed, it is safe to say this Colorado author will be bearing arms in both the real and fictional world.

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