GUNS: The powerful gotta go

It is always embarrassing when someone who proports to know a lot about a subject clearly does not, or worse, selectively ignores relevant facts. Such is clearly the case with Jim Jones’ guest opinion Aug. 21 entitled, “Get weapons of war off America’s streets.”

His principal argument is that AR-15/16 rifles fire very powerful ammunition. He should know that our soldiers carried rifles in the Spanish American War that were almost twice as powerful. The rifles carried in World War I, World War II and Korea were almost 2 1/2 times as powerful as the AR-15. This ammunition is designated as .30-06, and is the No. 1 hunting cartridge in America.

Let’s assume Mr. Jones gets his wish and modern assault rifles are banned. There are millions of World War II semi-automatic rifles called Garands that shoot the much more powerful .30-06. They only hold eight shots but can be reloaded just as fast as an AR. So, they have to go.

There are millions of semi-auto hunting rifles that also shoot the .30-06. They only have five shots, but they can be reloaded just as fast as an AR. I guess they have to go.

Many elk hunters carry rifles 3-4 times as powerful as an AR, so they gotta go, also. I trust you can see where this is going.

Two famous sayings are appropriate here. We have 5,000 years of history saying that “Restricting inanimate objects has no effect on human behavior.” Also, “Those who trade security for freedom will get neither.”

DOUG WEIR

Hayden