To the editor:

Each time there is a mass killing in the United States, people fearing for their safety purchase more guns. The more fanatical among them purchase AR type semi automatic rifles, high capacity magazines, and loads of ammunition. Since there is a high correlation between the number of this type of gun and mass murders, it is a pattern that is self perpetrating.

The response from the right is also a pattern. It involves thoughts and prayers followed by ludicrous arguments that hammers, knives, and shovels can be equally as deadly or that a manual action rifle can be fired at a similar rate. They absolutely can’t.

Mass killers choose semi-automatic rifles using high powered center fire ammunition and large capacity magazines for a simple reason. They are the most effective means to kill mass numbers of people.

The fallacy of equivalence is usually followed by the argument that more people are killed in automobiles and we have not outlawed cars. That may also be true but governments have mitigated highway deaths by implementing numerous laws regulating cars, drivers, and roads as I have pointed out in a previous letter.

A Republican Congressman recently said that we “didn’t have a conversation about banning airplanes” after September 11th. While that is true, we created a whole new bureaucracy and implemented numerous new regulations to prevent it from happening again. Those regulations include passengers passing through a full body scan or a metal detector before flying. Knives, guns, and box cutters are now prohibited in carryon luggage, and cockpit doors are now reinforced and locked prior to takeoff. In other words, government took steps to mitigate future deaths.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that the Second Amendment gives citizens the right to own guns. I own guns and agree with the ruling. I do not want to see guns banned. However, there is a preeminent right bestowed by the creator and defined in the Declaration of Independence. That is the right of all citizens to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It is past the time to recognize that unalienable right and to pass gun control measures that actually mitigate the carnage. If we don’t, the pattern of death will continue and more innocent children and adults will die needlessly.

Harry M. Geedey

Lewistown, PA