Letter to the Editor: Mass murder weapons
BY William H. Hinkle, Tulsa
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
2/05/13 at 9:00 AM
The only mass "murders" done with a blunt object in recorded history were committed by Samson, using the jawbone of an ass on the Philistines, so we can scratch the hammer and baseball bat from Ray Lancaster's list of weapons the Sandy Hook killer could have used ("Wake up," Jan. 21).
A spy may kill a foe with a Bic in a movie, but neither a ballpoint nor a knife has ever accomplished a mass murder.
Guns kill people. The only purpose for an AR-15 is to kill people, as it did at Sandy Hook. (Semiautomatic pistols are meant to kill people, too, but the victim is usually the owner or a family member, rather than an intruder.) The only purpose for a large-capacity magazine is to kill people. And the only purpose for armor-piercing bullets is to kill people - cops and rescue workers.
Anybody - including escaped violent felons and committed psychotics - can purchase all of these items designed solely for killing people at one of the many "gun shows," where 40 percent of guns are sold. National Rifle Association "leaders" insist that even requiring a background check of their purchasers amounts to shredding the Second Amendment. But of course they care deeply about protecting the lives of our children. Who are they kidding?
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