Re: “, ” June 15 news story.
If the framers of the U.S. Constitution had been asked in 1787 if the Second Amendment included the right of any citizen to possess a weapon which could fire 30 shots in 15 seconds, they would have recoiled at the idea.
If Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson were told, in the 1870s, that cowboys had a constitutional right to openly carry their firearms in Dodge City, they would have thought the person who proposed such an notion to be “touched in the head.”
Yet here we are, yet once again, in the aftermath of a mass shooting in America. The frontier is gone, the Indian wars are over and the federal government is not the enemy.
The absolutist opponents of any firearms regulation need to realize the only thing that they will ensure is the absolute repeal of the Second Amendment when (not if) society decides that mass shootings are too high a price to pay for the current interpretation of gun rights.
Guy Wroble, Denver
In the wake of the Orlando tragedy, many are clamoring for an assault weapons ban. I would remind them that a federal ban on assault weapons was in place from 1994 to 2004, and that the Columbine tragedy occurred in April 1999. In fact, there were more than a dozen mass shootings while the ban was in place.
While I do not have a solution to the violence, it is unreasonable to expect that a new ban will be any more effective than the last one.
Mark Vanderbrook, Morrison
The only purpose for an assault rifle is to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time. As long as politicians/elected officials at every level of government in the United States, terrified of the National Rifle Association and a highly vocal minority of the population, remain mum about any possibility of outlawing assault rifles, there will be periodic horrific massacres around the nation, and we will continue to have a government program that ensures the profits of gun manufacturers and gun sellers.
Dick Johnston, Westminster
Americans are surprised to find out that an Islamic State sympathizer was able to buy an assault rifle after twice being interviewed by the FBI. They shouldn’t be. Congress has made it perfectly clear that the rights of Islamic State sympathizers must be respected and they have every right to buy assault weapons in the U.S.
If the Orlando killer had been on the no-fly list — if he was considered too dangerous to be allowed to fly on a commercial airliner — it would have made no difference either. He would still be allowed to buy assault weapons. President Obama has called for people on the no-fly list to be banned from buying assault rifles, but Republicans continue to say no
America’s gun-control policy is like the coyote who gets his foot caught in a trap and despite chewing off three of his feet, he is still surprised to find himself trapped.
Donal Grogan, Centennial
President Obama would have us believe that guns are the root cause behind the Orlando shootings and that ridding ourselves of them will put a stop to this sort of violence. But the truth of the matter is that guns are no more the root cause for what happened in that Orlando nightclub than the Internet was the root cause for how Omar Mateen became convinced that slaughtering as many people as possible was a righteous act simply because they were gay.
The root cause for what happened in Orlando is the ultimate “inconvenient truth” for Obama and the rest of his ilk because it lays bare the fallacy behind one of their most closely held beliefs. The truth of the matter is that Islam has an ugly side, and it is the root cause for why Mateen acted as he did and for why these people are now dead.
Douglas Fleecs, Greeley
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