Assault weapons should be banned

It is time that our Congress passed laws to ban assault weapons and ammunition. We have had enough mass murders recently of young children and innocent adults. Who will be next? Will it be your children and teachers? Several years ago, a Puerto Rican got into a session of Congress and shot and killed Congressman Alvin Bentley of Michigan. Imagine how many congressmen he could have killed with one or more assault rifles.

Hunting guns and target pistols used by true sportsmen serve a purpose and no one intends to ban them. But assault weapons only allow mass murders very rapidly. I have yet to see or hear any valid reasons that civilians should have them. But gun manufacturers, dealers, gun shows and the NRA show their greed and will sell these weapons of mass murder to anyone who will buy them.

Assault weapons should only be allowed for military, police and Border Patrol. The Second Amendment that the NRA would have you believe infringes on your rights to bear "arms" doesn’t say anything about any right to have assault weapons. Remember that the Second Amendment was written over 200 years ago when we had no organized army to fight the British and/or Indians. Militias had to be formed to preserve our freedom, but assault weapons did not exist. Our forefathers who passed the Second Amendment are probably turning over in their graves if they know how the NRA is totally distorting the meaning of the word "arms."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and some fellow senators are pushing for renewal of the ban on assault weapons which was passed during the Clinton years. Gabby Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly came out strongly for a ban on assault weapons. I think there are millions more intelligent Americans that want these murder weapons banned just as they are in Canada. I have asked Canadian friends about their gun control laws. They are very strict. Are Canadians smarter than we are?

Gene Phillips

Yuma