Letters: Shooters, not guns, are problem

Gary Parker says it’s time to ban “assault weapons,” (Letters, June 23), but the term assault weapon only means the gun looks like a military rifle. The AR-15 has a pistol grip but is the same gun we have always had without the cosmetic features, and shooting the same bullets. The AR-15 and all so-called assault weapons are semi-automatic, meaning they shoot one bullet per trigger pull regardless of the military looks.

Mr. Parker speaks of a fusillade of bullets, but full automatic machine guns have been outlawed since Bonnie and Clyde in 1934 and included in the “Firearm Owners Protection Act” of 1986 signed by President Ronald Reagan with the endorsement of the NRA and Wayne Lapierre, who Mr. Parker calls a wacko.

No one legally owns machine guns.

He mentions all the mass shootings, but most were not with an AR-15, which is the most popular sporting rifle in America. Instead of blaming guns, let’s put the blame where it belongs: on Islamic terrorism and mental health problems.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Letters: Shooters, not guns, are problem."