LETTER: Let’s get weapons of war off our streets

The only thing more predictable than the reality of another slaughter of innocents by a gunman with a semiautomatic weapon of war is the response of GOP senators tap dancing around the fact that such was the instrument of choice.

Who cares what the motive of the shooter was? Would it matter if he were a religious fanatic? A terrorist wanting to make a point? A screwed-up kid? Some guy with a grudge? Not in the slightest. What mattered is that he had a legal weapon of war readily at hand. Not a brick or a baseball bat or a lead pipe, or even a double-barreled shotgun, but a weapon designed to kill as many people as possible with high-velocity bullets just by pulling a trigger multiple times.

I grew up with guns. I have medals won in target matches and gloves made from the hides of deer I shot. My opinion is informed. For what legitimate purpose would I want an assault rifle? To shoot gophers? These things are a plague. Why turn a free country into an armed camp to protect ourselves against them?

Make owning such weapons illegal. Buy them back from their currently legal owners for a fair price and make them illegal to possess after a date certain. People will still kill people. But they will kill a lot fewer wielding six-shooters than assault rifles equipped with extended magazines.