ASSAULT: Weapons of mass destruction

I recently heard three retired teachers from Stockton, Calif., speaking about gun violence. In 1989 they worked at a Stockton school when a mentally disturbed man with an AK47 murdered five children and injured numerous others. One of the women said she has tolerated gun violence, but she became angry after Sandy Hook. When asked why she was getting involved, another retired teacher said, “Because nothing is being done.”

We all know that assault weapons and high capacity magazines have one purpose, which is to slaughter human beings. The gun culture in this country has evolved to such an extent that we think assault weapons are necessary to defend against government agents or the military coming after us. This irrational fear has no place in common sense America. We have now come to the point where the slaughter of school children and adults in movie theaters is an acceptable loss so the rest of us can keep our assault weapons. Hopefully, enough of us will come to our senses and realize that loss is not acceptable.

Assault weapons with multi-round magazines capable of killing 30, 40, 50 or more people, with one squeeze of the trigger, are weapons of mass destruction and should be excluded from the Second Amendment. I am well aware of the argument that “people kill people,” but these weapons make it far too easy.

BRUCE HANSEN

Coeur d’Alene