To the editor:
In his March 16 letter, “Don’t blame NRA and guns,” Mike Johnson asked: “Why is it that the NRA is getting the blame for these mass shootings?” The answer is because the NRA supports making military grade assault weapons available to the general public without background checks. Mr. Johnson made the valid point that kitchen knives and forks, axes, shovels and pitchforks can be used as murder weapons. This is true. But can a deranged sociopath murder 17 victims in minutes with a knife, or a tool? Or many concert goers from a high hotel window?
Because of dangerous predators and snakes, our father taught us to safely use handguns and rifles when we were children. I was able to defend my father and two of my children from a vicious dog pack as a result. I survived a vicious attack from a large, savage dog myself as a result. I saved many baby farm animals as a result. But single action pistols and lever action rifles were sufficient. We never owned, much less used a military grade rapid-fire weapon.
As I understand their purpose, the National Rifle Association supports civilian gun ownership not only for the purpose of self and family defense against home invasion, but as a safeguard against military dictatorship, which happens when governments turn on their own citizenry. Would never happen here in America, or hasn’t happened because citizens were well armed? What happened to under and unarmed minorities not seen as citizens before the civil rights movement? Jim Crow discrimination? The Trail of Tears?
By all means, civil American citizens should have the right to bear arms, even military grade assault weapons, if they are civil. But is purchasing a rapid-fire assault weapon as easily as purchasing a knife, axe, shovel or pitchfork really reasonable? Shouldn’t the NRA take the lead in support of background checking, rather than “throwing caution to the wind?”
Robert C. Currie Jr.
Laurinburg