Dear Editor:

I will state that the following was posted on a public Facebook page quite a few years ago. Only the dates have been adjusted.

117 years ago, in 1907 ... our great-grandparents were first able to purchase a rifle identified as the semi-auto Winchester Model 1907.This is a gun they could buy from a Sears catalog and have delivered via USPS. It is a semi-automatic, high powered centerfire rifle, with a detachable, high capacity magazine.
 
About 400,000 of these were produced before WW2. Civilians had hundreds of thousands of these semi-auto rifles for 40 years, while U.S. soldiers were still being issued old fashioned bolt action rifles.

The 1907 fired just as fast as an AR15 and the bullet (.351 Winchester) was actually larger than those fired by the modern .223/5.56 rifles. The only difference between the 1907 and the supposedly feared AR15 is the modern black mechanical looking metal and plastic/carbon fiber visual of the delivery mechanics.

Only criminals don’t abide the 2nd Amendment.

John Splaine

West Boothbay Harbor