I know everyone has heard about the tragic killing of the grade-school children and adults in Connecticut. Even though the killer had two handguns, he used the AR-15 assault rifle to do most of the killing. If I am not mistaken, these assault rifles were banned for 10 years up until 2004. Now most Republicans and very conservative Democrats seem to be just fine with the current laws.

But why does anyone, outside of the armed forces, need an assault rifle of this killing capacity? People say they like to target practice and hunt with them, but there are handguns and other kinds of rifles that can do these same things. Why allow assault rifles to be owned be the public?

The Republicans and very conservative Democrats also need to study Obamacare much, much more. Conservatives say they’re against “give-away programs” such as Medicaid.

But I have heard the president say that all but the very poor citizens will have to be on some kind of health insurance and/or pay the government some money to buy insurance. Isn’t this a way to eliminate some of the “give-away” of Medicaid?

I know families who had all of their children using Medicaid; they pay a net of no income taxes and get a large sum of money back by using the child tax credit and earned income credit. Wouldn’t Obamacare get rid of some of this outrageous government give-away?

Please ponder these two controversial issues to see how you really, really feel about them.

Timothy Monroe Bledsoe

North Augusta