Here we go again. Another mass shooting and the gun control enthusiasts are at it again, promoting their emotional vice fact-based anti-Second Amendment agenda calling for the banning of perfectly legal firearms owned by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of law-abiding citizens.

First though, a couple of important corrections to mistakes made by Rep. June Speakman in her letter advocating gun banning. These same mistakes are made so often by those pushing gun control as the remedy for what they erroneously label as “gun violence” as to lead me to conclude that they do not want to be persuaded by facts.

The firearm type she seeks to ban is neither an assault rifle nor an automatic weapon. Nor is it really a ‘military styled weapon.” It simply looks like an M-16 military infantry weapon. The “AR” stands for ArmorLite, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. It has been around a long time. Significantly, it is a semi-automatic rifle, like many other rifles used for hunting, target shooting, sports and self-defense. It is NOT an automatic machine gun.

At least the Phoenix editorial in last week’s edition was able to recognize some of the real factors that contribute to the tragedies of mass shootings. They are numerous, but do not alter the most fundamental fact that it is not the gun that kills. In that sense, the deliberate use of the term “gun violence” is a willful misnomer.

Ms. Speakman and others in the state legislature who share her anti-gun agenda would be much more effective in their jobs by addressing the real factors that account for the constant tsunami of violence in our inner cities and mass shootings.

As stated by my good friend, Dexter Liu, “The government knows where the violence occurs overwhelmingly, and who’s doing the killing, yet we are distracted from addressing the out of control recidivism rate (85 percent in Rhode Island; reforming our criminal justice system; targeting the criminal drug trafficking and gang violence that hold our urban communities hostage; eradicating the desperate poverty that fuels criminal violence; bringing hope and opportunity to families in those neighborhoods; enacting educational reform particularly for children in these communities; unshackling the healthcare professionals to address mental health concerns; and enforcing current laws already on the books. Unless we address all of those issues, debating gun control wastes valuable time, squanders our resources and continues to be a deadly distraction.”

Even the paper’s editorial position that banning a particular firearm might reduce the number of casualties is no justification for denying any law abiding citizen his constitutional right to keep and bear arms — certainly no more so than banning a Corvette could be deemed reasonable because it might save some innocent lives.

As with the car, or whatever weapon is chosen, it is not the gun nor the always vilified NRA that kills. Depriving the law abiding citizen his or her constitutional right will do absolutely nothing to eliminate the evils perpetrated by individuals.  Ms. Speakman needs to understand that.

Peter Hewett
Bristol