Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Assault weapons ban aids criminals

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In her letter, “There’s precedent for unlikely chance,” Roberta Newman seemed to indicate that she would liked to see a ban on all assault weapons.

What is an assault weapon? Is an AR15 semi-automatic rifle any more of an assault weapon than any hunting rifle that also happens to be semi-automatic? Is a revolver any less of an assault weapon than a so-called semi-automatic pistol? Any weapon that is an automatic can be considered an assault weapon.

For clarification, any firearm that shoots one round for each pull of the trigger is semi-automatic. Automatic weapons are those that continue to fire rounds while the trigger is held in the pulled position. Fully automatic weapons are almost impossible for the public to legally obtain.

To ban firearms from honest, law-abiding people is to leave them victim to the criminal element that doesn’t worry about such bans except to know that their victims have no self-defense. Yes, thorough background checks should be done, including checking on people with mental health issues both past and present. Background checks should be required even for private gun sales or transfers, and those transactions should have required registrations.

There are no easy answers, but banning guns from honest people is not one of them.

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