Letter from Hilda Wilcox
It makes no sense
How much sense does it make that our supposedly civilized country allows the sale of AR-15-style assault weapons that can — and do — kill 20 or more people in minutes? Is that a freedom necessary to a democracy?
Should anyone who can find the money to buy such a mass-killer weapon feel free to unleash such mortal terror?
A few facts: Such a gun used in Highland Park, Illinois; Uvalde, Texas; and Buffalo, New York can fire up to 100 rounds without pausing to reload. Adam Lanza in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, fired 154 rounds in 264 seconds.
Are we willing to let our gun manufacturers increase their profits at the expense of the lives of so many Americans, young and old?
Are the profits of these gun manufacturers in greater need of protection than the lives of the people their guns have killed?
Hilda Wilcox
Cooperstown
It is a horrible thing and I am in agreement that anyone under 18 unless in the military should not be able to buy one. However if we think making illegal to buy theses rifles is going to stop the carnage think again. Fentanyl is illegal. Opium is illegal. Etc. Criminals don’t abide by laws. As a society we need a more effective approach. That is the challenge
It is a horrible thing and I am in agreement that anyone under 18 unless in the military should not be able to buy one. However if we think making illegal to buy theses rifles is going to stop the carnage think again. Fentanyl is illegal. Opium is illegal. Etc. Criminals don’t abide by laws. As a society we need a more effective approach. That is the challenge
Military weapons of war – including ammunition that travels 3x faster than pistol bullets and is meant to fragment when slamming into flesh (thus to kill humans, not animals that are legally hunted) – should indeed be banned, and not just to juveniles! No, such a ban would not end American “carnage” but it would reduce some mass murders and senseless violence. And it would reduce the profits that US gun manufacturers reep as long as we tolerate practices that more civilized societies prohibit!
Military weapons of war – including ammunition that travels 3x faster than pistol bullets and is meant to fragment when slamming into flesh (thus to kill humans, not animals that are legally hunted) – should indeed be banned, and not just to juveniles! No, such a ban would not end American “carnage” but it would reduce some mass murders and senseless violence. And it would reduce the profits that US gun manufacturers reep as long as we tolerate practices that more civilized societies prohibit!