Columbia, SC — In his Feb. 14 letter attacking the proposed assault weapon ban (“What really is an assault weapon?”), Ronnie Boyce says the measure shows President Obama’s intent “to disarm us so that we have to serve the government.” Then Mr. Boyce advises us to “smell the stink coming from the White House.”

Unlike those of Mr. Boyce’s persuasion, I don’t believe that the Second Amendment means we have to let a psychopath go from the hospital to a gun show to buy an assault weapon on his way to the schoolhouse. Nor do I believe that the government is trying to disarm us, or that a “legitimate” rape victim can just “shut down” her own pregnancy, or that we should make it hard for old and poor people to vote, or that global warming is a myth.

I don’t claim that all Republicans believe all of these things, but it is my observation that only Republicans believe any of them. As far as the “stink from the White House,” after four years of intense fumigation, it is finally gone.

Harry F. Smithson

Columbia