Assault gun ban would protect us

PHOTOGRAPHER: Letters to the Editor

I’m a sportsman. Growing up, our primary forms of recreation were fishing and hunting. I have fond memories of days spent with my father hunting those erratic woodcock with a 20-gauge pump shotgun. To my thinking, that’s the epitome of shooting sports. I can imagine no sport that requires an assault rifle. There’s no room in the shooting sports for such a weapon.

I agree with those who argue that it’s not guns that kill people, but people who kill people. However, people with assault weapons kill exponentially more people than people with ordinary firearms. We may not be able to eradicate all senseless mayhem, but we can reduce the carnage.

I’m also sympathetic to those who vigorously argue for their Second Amendment rights. I have spent my entire professional career defending the constitutional rights of citizens. The framers of our Constitution intentionally gave us a document that protects us against government abuse as well as allows for change to meet circumstances that the framers couldn’t foresee.

The pressing need of our day isn’t for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from their government by force of arms, but to protect each other, and especially our children, from madmen with weapons of mass slaughter. We must take steps to ban the general availability of assault weapons.

Michael T. Horan

Schenectady