The news from Colorado is now joined by a discussion of gun laws. Senator John McCain responded to a question Monday about having a gun law debate in the Senate:
Q: Reporter: Can you support some limits on guns and still support the second amendment because the NRA seems to suggest that you can’t?
A: McCain: Again, somebody would have to prove that it would actually have a beneficial effect, some of the strictest gun laws in the country are in places where crime is at its worst.
As “The Last Word” staff worked on Friday night to gather information about the shooting at the Batman movie screening, I read reports from Colorado about the types of guns used in this crime. Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said four weapons were used in the attack: “Two 40-caliber Glock handguns, a Remington 870 single-barrel pump shotgun and a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle.” As someone who grew up in a rural part of the southeastern United States, most of those sound pretty familiar with the exception of the AR-15 rifle.
From the age off about 10, as soon as the weather changed from summer to autumn and the leaves started to change, so did my sleep schedule as my father would wake me around 3:30 or 4:00 am to go hunting. I would slowly climb into camouflage coveralls and meet my dad at the gun cabinet in the den, where he would choose the appropriate guns for that mornings hunt: Semi-automatic 20-gauge shotguns for duck, goose and other bird hunting; rifles and a 12-gauge shotgun with buckshot for deer season. Pulling a military-style weapon out of the gun cabinet in the den just didn’t happen.
The rifle used in Colorado was made by Smith & Wesson according to reports and thus is an AR-15 “style” rifle, as another company actually owns that name. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the M-16 military assault rifle and was banned from 1994-2004 when the assault weapons ban expired. One of the arguments for the ban were the various attachments available for purchase for this gun like bayonets. I have never seen a bayonet on a bolt action hunting rifle.
In the 1980s and early ’90s when I hunted with my father, the men he hunted with often talked about the laws concerning gun ownership and especially how to make certain that they were abiding by the law. There was a limit as to how many bullets each gun held and thus a limit to how many shots before you had to reload, three four or five as far I remember. I also remember we had no problem returning home with at least a few ducks, geese, or doves. One pull of the trigger, one shot from a shotgun, and usually at least one bird would go down. If you missed, it took just a second to pull the pump and put another shell in the chamber to fire again. Our chocolate lab did not want for ducks to retrieve in the cold November waters of eastern North Carolina.









