Editor:

John Jameson in his letter tries to pass himself off as some sort of “expert” in ballistics as he apparently feels his expertise on hypothetical wounds caused by an AR-15 is superior to those who observed the wounds in real life firsthand. Jameson claims AR-15 rounds make a small hole in the front and a small hole in the back. It’s obvious he didn’t read the Atlantic article I mentioned in my letter by a Florida radiologist who examined x-rays of the wounds of the Parkland victims shot by an AR-15. I’ll give him another article to read. The Feb. 24 issue of the Miami Herald titled “Mangled tissue and softball sized exit wounds: Why AR-15 injuries are so devastating.” The title tells it all. What Jameson didn’t mention is that the AR-15 round is designed to tumble once it strikes a target. The tumbling along with the high velocity causes massive internal damage and large exit wounds.

I don’t know where Jameson got his information that there were problems in stopping power in the early adoption of the M-16. There was naturally skepticism along this line when one compared the familiar M-14 bullet with the Space Age M-16 one. However, the problem with the original -16 was its reliability in Vietnam not its stopping power. Even if the issue were real, improvements in the design would have long ago made it moot.

I have to laugh when NRA types like Jameson complain about the police not confiscating Nikolas Cruz’s guns when there was no a law that would have permitted it. On the contrary, had the police acted as Jameson wanted, he probably would have complained that the police were infringing on Cruz’s Second Amendment rights. After all, Cruz fit the profile of both legal AR-15 purchasers and mass shooters: white, male, Christian with no criminal record.

Finally, Jameson says removing legal firearms from honest citizens won’t solve anything. I suggest he take a vacation to Australia and look at how they handled mass shootings. In 1996, they instituted a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, launched a buy back program and instituted severe penalties for possession of illegal weapons. The result is no mass shooting in Australia for the last 21+ years. We have trouble going 20 days without a mass shooting.

Yes, intellect over emotion. The problem is the pro-gun side has a monopoly on emotion.

James Peca

Farmville