Hultgren's opposition to assault weapons

There is no legitimate need for civilians to have assault weapons like the AR-15s used by the psychopath in Las Vegas.

There is no reason that a civilian should be allowed to own a weapon than can fire 700 rounds a minute. There is no decent, rational person who thinks that a civilian should be able to own weapons that can shoot over 500 people from the 32nd floor of a building a quarter of a mile away in 1 minute.

Yet my congressman, Randy Hultgren, and his fellow right wing Republicans think that civilians should be able to own military type assault weapons.

There is no Second Amendment right to own an assault rifle, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held in upholding a Highland Park ban on assault weapon. The United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from this ruling.

So, how can you explain the opposition of Randy Hultgren to a ban on assault weapons? Is he actually content with the massacre of little children at Newton, the people at the Orlando nightclub, and now 57 in Las Vegas? Is it the money he has taken from the NRA and the gun lobby? Or is he afraid of the NRA?

He apparently shouldn't be. The NRA gives him a 93 percent rating. By contrast the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has rated him at zero.

It's too bad he doesn't have the courage of the police, paramedics and heroic civilians who responded at Las Vegas.

Wiley W. Edmondson

Geneva