As I write this, I can hear the incessant discharge of weapons at the nearby gun range. On every news network is a dissection of the Newtown, Conn., massacre. As a parent, my heart breaks for the affected families and friends. Yet I can feel a seething anger building in me.
How could this have happened? How could so many young lives have been cut short so tragically and senselessly?
The answers are simple: The easy, unfettered access to high-capacity, semiautomatic weapons that can rain death and destruction.
I grew up around guns and have owned or used guns my entire life. I have owned both handguns and long guns and used both. I have no particular aversion and carried one while in the service, both in peace and combat. I know what it is like to be shot at.
I was a card-carrying National Rifle Association member, but I tore up my card over its absurd and incredible opposition to even the most common-sense proposals on gun licensing and registration.
People argue that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," but people with high-capacity and semiautomatic weapons can certainly kill more people. Others argue that "guns are only tools," but so is an arc welder — and not everyone gets to use one.
I spent much of my adult life living in an area where hunting is popular. Many of my friends are avid hunters. I've never seen them need a Sig Sauer, a Glock or a Bushmaster to bag a deer or turkey. Weapons like these have a single purpose: to kill people and lots of them.
If we truly want to commemorate the tragic loss of so many lives, we can do more than simply pray or watch talking heads on television. We can demand that our elected representatives come together and pass meaningful gun control legislation. And we can refuse to re-elect those legislators who refuse to work together on this and other important issues.
REID MULLER, M.D.
Albany