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Letter: The Tribune and Playboy have something in common

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah gun owner Brianna Seymour, 36, says she owns an AR-15 because it's easy to customize and "fun to shoot" while honing her skills through target practice. Seymour says she's never even shot an animal and welcomes background checks and a 21-and-older policy.

“The Truth About Guns” has this to say about military-style weapons: “The AK is the epitome of the sexy/scary ‘assault rifle’ genre. With its sinister angles and scythe-like magazine, the weapon just oozes danger and coolness.”

Maybe that is why The Salt Lake Tribune’s Feb. 27 above-the-fold glamour shot of an AR-15 with the pretty lady holding her favorite gun ran two weeks after the slaughter of 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school. It seems that The Tribune and Playboy magazine have this in common: Put a provocative photo on the cover to sell product and maybe people will “read the interesting articles.”

The text of Sara Weber’s article was overshadowed by Francisco Kjolseth’s photo shoot that prominently featured the weapon of choice of many deranged people when they decide their life is hell so make others suffer. Suicide by cop; suicide by history teacher; suicide by ex-Marine coach; suicide by Donald Trump’s bare hands; suicide by killer himself. It doesn’t matter. Only the body count matters in the first one, two, three or four minutes of semi-automatic fire before the killer gets out of the building or departs this Earth.

Judy Hardy, Cottonwood Heights