Editor, The Herald:

America has had another mass killing particularly horrific because most were small children. As to be expected, the call for a ban (or restrictions) on assault type weapons rises up. Some say America has millions of these type arms in private hands. Those millions also have done no harm to anyone and never will. Bill Clinton had his 1994 assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Statistics showed that murder rates did not go down during those 10 years when the ban was enacted nor did the rates rise when it expired. A Sunday morning talk show commentator said, “these children were not killed with a deer rifle but, an assault weapon”. Would America feel better today had these children been killed with a deer rifle? Deer cartridges are far more powerful than the AR-15 .223 cartridge. Such deer rifle power could easily kill many people with a single shot. Had a deer rifle been used, the air-waves would be flooded with calls for the banning them or at least reducing the power they have. As shocking as it is to see so many lives lost at the hands of a mentally ill man, tens of thousands of Americans are killed every year by drunk drivers. Where is the public outcry against cars or at least alcoholic drinks? Indeed, America has proudly legalized marijuana (of late) in some states that is sure to cost lives with the like mind-altering effect that alcohol has.

We are a country who glorifies killing and death by guns with our Hollywood movies and video games. We constantly teach bloody instruction to our youth and are somehow puzzled when this instruction returns to plague our society. Our elected officials who found their way into public office with an anti Second Amendment agenda seize on moments like this to further their cause with ineffectual and moronic calls to gut our Constitutional rights. Tragic and heart breaking as these incidents are, compared to the number of guns in private hands across America, such incidents enjoy a very low percentage. Only if America collectively decides to live like a 50 state prison under constant lock-down where every move of every citizen is monitored and controlled, exceedingly sad days such as this will (on occasion) have to be experienced and endured.

Karl Schmidt

Farmville