Assault Weapons

* The point raised by a letter writer (July 28) that 86% of all firearms used in crimes are obtained illegally raises the obvious question. Where do the criminals get them? From the people who bought them legally and who consider that an assault weapon or a semiautomatic are nice to have around the house . . . like a microwave! The sooner the source of these weapons is removed--in other words, totally banned--the less chance they have of being stolen or disposed of!

You have an escalation problem here and someday you may be able to watch the Marines “confiscating” weapons caches from warlords . . . on your local TV station, unless someone calls a halt to the sale of assault weapons.

J. A. MACINTOSH

Arcadia