EDITOR:

Another slaughter in schools and the NRA and House Majority Leader Ryan think doesn’t want to say anything until all the facts are in. Here’s the facts, Ryan — 17 killed by AR-15 in a school. Field and Stream on July 21, 2017, had a “Ultimate Guide to Hunting Rifles.” The AR-15 was not on the list. North American Whitetail on May 11, 2016, listed the best hunting rifles. The AR-15 was not on the list.

One writer in a hunting blog quoted a guide as saying, “One shot, get a deer. Two shots, maybe get a deer. Three shots, no deer.” So why do we need assault weapons — a favorite of, and needed by, the military and police SWAT teams — in the hands of civilians? Not for hunting.

The AR-15, a variant of the military assault weapon, is for killing people as fast as the trigger can be pulled — faster if a bump stock is used, as was done in Las Vegas, even faster if converted to fully automatic.

Now, thanks to U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman and President Trump, persons in receipt of Supplemental Security Income for a disability or Social Security for a disability listed in Section 12, Listing of Impairments, who have a payee to manage their Social Security funds won’t be listed on the national registry of persons restricted from buying weapons. Schizophrenics who are incompetent to make change from a dollar can buy an AR-15 assault rifle, a 30-round banana clip, and do as they please.

Bergman in 2017 voted yes on House Resolution 40, which voided Social Security’s well-reasoned rule to place persons seriously disabled due to a mental health condition on the list and also who had a representative payee. But Bergman thinks persons not competent to manage their own funds and who have serious symptoms mental disorders ought to be able to be packing. Of course Bergman does: The NRA gave him $4,950 during the 2016 election cycle and has already given him $1,000 in the 2018 election cycle.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 must be reinstituted. And for those who parrot the NRA’s “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns,” the assault weapons ban permits all kinds of hunting rifles, pistols, derringers, swords, knives and rocks. It would slow down the number of rounds per second a criminal could fire, limit the number of rounds in a weapons and make wholesale murder less efficient. The assault weapons ban would reduce the number of murdered children and grieving families.

An assault weapons ban would not prevent anyone from hunting deer, grouse, bear, goose or snipe. But an assault weapons ban might make it safer for children in schools, worshippers in churches, attendees at concerts, viewers in movie theatres and partiers at night clubs — all places where criminals using assault rifles have sprayed countless rounds of bullets at the innocent.

Mark C. Miller

Kingsford