Letter: What do Americans have that Kiwis don’t?
(Lisa Marie Pane | The Associated Press) In this June 24, 2016 file photo, an AR-15 is held in Auburn, Ga. The Pittsburgh City Council gave initial approval Wednesday, March 27, 2019, to gun-control legislation introduced in wake of the 2018 synagogue massacre, an effort certain to be challenged in court by Second Amendment advocates who point out that state law doesn't allow municipalities to regulate firearms. The legislation would place restrictions on military-style assault weapons like the AR-15 rifle that authorities say was used in the Oct. 27 rampage at Tree of Life Synagogue that killed 11 and wounded seven.
After the horrific massacre there, it took New Zealand just one week to stop the sale of military-style assault rifles.
What do we Americans have that the Kiwis don’t? First of all, a badly outdated constitutional amendment, about which gun rights advocates routinely ignore the clause dealing with the necessity of “A well-regulated militia.” They only look at the other clause. Read it for yourselves.
And, secondly, scaremongers of the National Rifle Association, who have successfully created a small army of delusional sycophants. Guns are obviously more important to these people than the masses of Americans being killed by weapons designed for use on foreign battlefields, not American streets.
Will our lawmakers never summon the courage to do what New Zealand has done?
M.J. Ogden, North Ogden
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