Dear Editor:

With renewed cries for more restrictions on private firearm ownership in our country, we should once again take an honest look at the issue. When legislators propose a ban on modern sporting rifles, they are being dishonest and pandering to the media and the public.

Rifles of all descriptions are used in an average of 350 murders per year, a rather small fraction of the total statistic. The same applies to the much maligned “high capacity” magazine. With prominent politicians talking about bans and “buybacks” and registration of tens of millions of firearms, one must suspend disbelief to think that more will not follow.

The overwhelming number of murders by firearm in this nation are the result of drug, gang or other criminal activity. The chances of someone being killed in a random act not connected to other crimes are absurdly high but if you listen to the media and the people, they have managed to indoctrinate thousands are being killed by angry white men every day. The latest cry of “seven mass shootings in seven days” is dishonest. We all know of the event in Atlanta which the media has framed in the “angry white man” style and the Boulder shooting where, try as they might, it gets harder to make that claim toward a Syrian immigrant. The other five were related to drug and gang activity but the media and our elected officials fail to be honest once again.

The media and the politicians cannot be honest because that would mean admitting that the policies of the past 50-plus years have done great harm to a sizable segment of the population. It is easier to blame a tool once again for the damage done than blame the one doing the damage, or the issues that created him.

Linc Sample

Boothbay Harbor