Letter writer Kimball Shinkosky has missed the point in the letter to the editor published Thursday concerning ownership of "assault weapons" such as the AR-15.
The Second Amendment was put in the Constitution to ensure the public could be protected from the government.
Does the average person need an AR-15? Of course not. But you can't pick and choose what you want to read into the amendment. If you make the ownership of an AR-15 illegal, the dominoes start to fall.
Of course, it's already reality, and you can see the left chomping at the bit to limit gun ownership even more. They've moved from automatic weapons to magazine size. Does limiting magazine size to 10 rounds make everyone more safe? Heck no. It just means that the person moving through the mall firing at everyone has to reload more often — assuming they are following the law by limiting themselves to 10 round magazines.
Has anyone on the left noticed that most mass shootings take place in "gun-free zones?” Want to make your children safer? Arm some teachers. Want to make the mall safer? Arm yourself. Want to make your home safer? Have a loaded weapon available in your home. Teach your children firearm safety, don't try to shield them from guns. Or better yet, send them to an NRA firearm safety class — and go with them.
We as a society need to understand that there are tens of millions of firearms out there, and trying to outlaw them, or limit ownership, is like spitting in the ocean to raise its level. You can make it so that good citizens cannot protect themselves from the criminal element, who will own firearms whether they're legal or not.
Bruce Peterson
Centralia
