Gun Control and Tragedy in a Stockton Schoolyard

In your editorial, The Times predictably seized upon the tragedy of Stockton to fuel new attempts to ban firearms. This time your target is so-called “assault weapons.”

The sad fact is that the murderer could have caused as much or more carnage at the school by ramming his car across the playground, or burning a couple of crowded classrooms with his “crude incendiary devices.” Other disturbed people in the past have used cars or arson to kill and you didn’t issue outraged calls to ban cars or gasoline.

A great many people own and use firearms such as the AK-47 in sport shooting or as part of collections. The vast majority will never be used in crime. To prohibit the legal ownership of something because criminals sometimes use it and it has great potential for deadly misuse would logically lead to the prohibition of many things. Private airplanes and boats, fast cars, chemistry sets, home workshops, and personal computers are a few easy to name ones. I don’t think most Americans want to live in a society where government regulates everything.

I am a member of the NRA. I am a “decent sportsman.” I do work to make lawmakers understand my views. I vote. I also can’t think of a more “coercive pressure group” than the anti-gun people you spearhead.

ERIC H. ELLERSIECK

Camp Pendleton