We can do without assault rifles, high-capacity ammo clips

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 22, 2022

I think that the GOP’s intransigence on the gun control issue is going to backfire on them. So many Americans are sick and tired of the enabling of anyone with a pulse to own an assault-type weapon that the supposed “red flag” laws or better background checks are not going to be enough. Case in point: The shooter in the July 4 massacre in Highland Park, Ill., passed four background checks in 2020 and 2021 while buying his arsenal. Both the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter and Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket shooter bought their assault rifles legally as well, and that’s just the latest massacres.

There’s about 400 million guns including 20 million assault type weapons in the U.S. now. There’s also 53 million mentally ill people of varying degrees living in the U.S., and who knows how many convicted criminals that will not ever be law abiding.

I think that anyone with half a brain can see the huge problem we face. I’m also sure that the rest of us that try to live a law-abiding life would appreciate some help with the problem and the only way we can see even a partial solution is to ban assault rifles or the high-capacity magazines or better yet ban both of them. We gun owners got along for decades without assault type weapons. I’m pretty sure we can manage somehow to be without them again.

Don Curtis

Stanwood