Terrorist won't be toting assault rifes

Mr. Gustafson in his letter to the editor seems to think that people can go out and buy an AK-47 machine gun anytime they want here in the U.S. For his information, the terrorists who attacked in Mumbai, India, used AK-47 assault weapons or assault rifles. An assault rifle is fully automatic - a machine gun. Automatic firearms have been severely restricted from civilian ownership since 1934 in the U.S. And as to his claim that "we are unloading container loads of AK-47s at our ports," he must not be aware that AK-47s were banned from import into the U.S. back in 1994 and they were semi-automatic weapons.

When we are hit again by terrorists in this country they will be using homemade bombs to kill as many people as they can; suicide bombers, with their bombs strapped to their chest, or car bombs.

If by chance the terrorists do use firearms to shoot people it probably will happen here in Illinois or Wisconsin because these are the only two states that don't have some form of right to carry laws for their citizens to protect themselves. If they try it in any other state they will meet their demise sooner that they would if they do it in Illinois or Wisconsin.

Despite Mr. Gustafson's rhetoric about Speaker Hastert not bringing the bill up to extend the ban, there was a reason for him doing so. According to an unpublished 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, "Assault weapons were used in 2 to 8 percent of gun crimes before the ban," and it was also noted that should it be renewed "The ban's effects on gun violence would likely be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement due to assault weapons rarely being used in gun crimes even before the ban."

No, Mr. Gustafson, the real reason Chicago wasn't chosen was all the Olympics to date have been staged in Europe, North America, Asia or Australia. Now that the IOC has ruled in favor of Rio de Janeiro, that imbalance has been corrected.

John Snowwhite III

Elgin