LETTER: Guns are here to stay

To the Editor: The Winchester Model 94, a 30/30 repeating rifle was designed in 1894. It has a tube magazine that holds six cartridges. Cartridges can be added without removing a clip. With a little practice, the rifle can shoot one round per second. Winchester made approximately 7 million of these rifles before stopping in 2006. The rifles are still being made in Japan.

The Colt 1911 .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun was designed as a military weapon. There are millions of them in circulation. They are still being manufactured and can still be purchased in any gun store. The clip only holds seven cartridges, but can be replaced quickly. A cartridge belt can hold many clips. It will fire as quickly as the trigger can be pulled.

These are just two examples of rapid-fire, repeating guns that have been around for more than 100 years. There are many more examples, including the so-called assault rifles -- millions and millions. If we stopped selling them right now, there would still be millions of them around for another 100 years.

Of course, more gun control laws will make some people feel better and make the lawmakers look like they are fixing the problem. But common sense tells us that nothing could be further from the truth.


So maybe the answer is for our government to collect all guns from private citizens and put those that refuse to give up their guns in jail -- the first step would be to register all firearms so that the government knows where they are. For those of you unfamiliar with history, I suggest you do some research. This was done by Joe Stalin in Russia, Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy and Fidel Castro in Cuba, just to name a few. Check to see how that worked out for the people in those countries.

As long as crazy people roam our streets unsupervised, they will continue to find a way to do crazy things.

Don Race, Fitchville, Ohio