American history points toward limiting, not abolishing, firearms
This still leaves open the loophole of private sales that do not require background checks, which President Obama wants to close. We will hear more about this in coming weeks, but the call meanwhile to ban assault weapons or limit magazines in the wake of the horrific mass murder of children and others at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut is hardly draconian. It won't solve the problem of mentally disturbed people exacting weird justice from innocents, but it might limit the toll. Having to stop one's rampage to reload rather breaks the spell, or so one would imagine.
One also imagines that the old Reagan would say there's no reason a citizen needs an assault weapon or a magazine that can destroy dozens of people in minutes. He would certainly be correct and, in a sane world, possibly even electable.
Kathleen Parker's email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
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Longfellow, If we have to ban knifes to get the Assault weapons off the street, well then let's do that too. And while fully automatic assault "rifles" are expensive and illegal, semi automatics with large capacity clips are cheap and More..
Excellent column. We need more thoughtfully considered columns like this one. Not until all sides of the debate can sit down and reason one with another can we have any hope of finding good solutions to a very difficult challenge.
"One also imagines that the old Reagan would say there's no reason a citizen needs an assault weapon or a magazine that can destroy dozens of people in minutes."
This is utter nonsense and yet another example of a journalist More..