It is pathetic to read the letters of gun worshipers since David Cook's column on gun violence appeared in the June 19 edition. In their rush to defend the AR-15 from the reality that it is an assault weapon, they have revealed their own adolescent fantasies. They shot a few tin cans and imagine that they are or will be heroic gunfighters. They imagine that they, armed with an AR-15, are preventing the annihilation of Americans by their own tyrannical government and its terrorist allies.
For them the Second Amendment is the unerring word of God. Their interpretation of it would allow anyone regardless of mental illness, criminal background or terrorist ties to possess an assault weapon. Their idea for public safety is for everyone to be armed everywhere and all the time.
"It takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun" philosophy is, at best, a delusion. There were several good guys with assault weapons at Orlando but they failed to stop the massacre. I know firsthand that one of the men killed in the Kansas City massacre in 2014 had a conceal carry permit and was carrying his gun with him when he was killed. Carrying a gun only gives you the illusion of security.
I happen to know a few things about assault weapons. I carried an M-16 for the better part of two years in Vietnam as a combat platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division (1967-68) and as senior adviser to the 69th Border Ranger Battalion (1970-71). My M-16 was never out of arm's reach. I ate with it in reach and held it next to my body when I slept. For several months after I came back from those two tours, it was difficult for me to adapt to not having it in my hands. Through the years, I have had nightmares about not being able to find it. In 1968 alone, 14,000 GIs were killed in action. By the end of my first tour in October 1968, I had had my fill of shooting other human beings with it.
The M-16 is designed for one purpose - to kill large numbers of human beings. The selector switch has three positions: safe, semi and fully automatic. In Vietnam, we called the automatic position "rock and roll." In that position, the weapon's muzzle tended to pull upward off the target and to waste ammo. We taught our infantrymen to use semi-automatic in firefights. Automatic was only useful if you were about to be overrun.
So the argument that the AR-15 is not an assault weapon because it does not have automatic on its selector switch is a totally bogus position. This is a weapon of war.
If you gun worshippers want one, join the U.S. Armed Forces. They will issue you one for your very own. They will let you clean it and care for it like a part of your own body. They will train you to use it in real firefights. They will also provide you opportunities to use it against targets who shoot back. You will find that real gunfights are quite different from fantasy.
Terry Stulce, who spent five years in the U.S. Army, was a paratrooper, jump master, Ranger and instructor of mountaineering and patrolling in Ranger school. He was in Vietnam for two years.