Letter: Gun legislation ‘Ferguson’s folly’
Well, once again politicians (Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and others) are trying to take advantage of a sad tragedy by proposing more gun legislation.
He says the 19-year-old who killed three people in July wasn’t old enough to buy beer, but could buy the assault weapon he used. It looks like Initiative 594 failed, because the 19-year-old passed a background check.
Ferguson wants to prohibit the sale of assault weapons, which he says ... “are designed for killing people and have no place in civilian use.” He doesn’t realize that all firearms from the ancient Chinese hand cannon to today’s AR-15 were originally designed as military weapons and adapted to sporting purposes. He wants to prohibit sale of semiautomatic weapons with certain military-style features. What features do you suppose he is referring to, a shoulder stock, sights, or trigger?
The AR-15 is today’s most popular style of modern rifle. It can be assembled in a wide variety of configurations for use in hunting, target work and self-protection. To categorize firearms into groups of “sporting” or “military” use is to try to manage human behavior through ignorance. Voters should make a note of Mr. Ferguson’s folly.
Dennis Carlyle, Kennewick
This story was originally published September 25, 2016 at 4:24 AM with the headline "Letter: Gun legislation ‘Ferguson’s folly’."