Dear Editor:

Mr. Levin (Letters, 4/26) makes the very same assumptions that many of his ilk do, that I and other lawful gun owners are ignorant hicks who can do nothing but watch Fox news or scroll Breitbart. He isn’t the first to make that mistake. I have done my research, it comes from FBI crime stats and studies done for the University of Chicago and follow ups to same. Not MSNBC or some gun grabber magazine

Is America violent? Overall no, most Americans go through life never committing a violent act.

Do we have more legally owned firearms than other countries? By all means, and the majority are never used in a crime.

Are we Australia? No!

The Heller decision states that firearms considered “unusual and dangerous” could be restricted. With the nations murder rate by rifle at 370 +- and there being over 30 million modern sporting rifles (the real name for the AR15, it wasn’t a misquote) I doubt the case could be made they are either.

Kolbe v. Hogan is a lower court ruling that contradicts Heller.

It has been firmly established that none of the previously proposed restrictions would do one thing to reduce either school shootings or any other statistic.

While tragic, school shootings are still a very small portion of America’s falling crime rate. Most of murders are related to gang or drug activities and occur in our urban areas. California, with its strict gun laws, has 10 percent of the nation’s population and 20 percent of its murders.

I have more and can do this all day

I would suggest he follow his own advice and do a bit of research, not just on this issue but on who he is writing about.

Linc Sample

Boothbay Harbor