Doug, like you I’ve been a gun owner from a very early age. My dad gave me my first gun, a .410 when I was 12 or 13 and I have owned guns ever since. I remember riding my bike 8 miles into town to buy shells for it at the Western Auto. Too young to drive. Now I never owned any semi-automatic. I never had use for them. I had an M-14, then an M-16 and later a M-203 assigned to me while I was on active duty, the 203 is nothing more than an M-16 with a grenade launcher on the bottom, the old M-79.

I also never belonged to the NRA. I’ve always been turned off by them. Neither did my dad or grandpa. I never saw a reason for any civilian to own a semi-automatic rifle, pistol or whatever. I also carried a .45 while in the army. I loved the .45. But once I retired, I thought about getting one. But what would I use it for? I never did get one.

I look at gun control differently than most, regardless of which side of the issue one is on. We’ve been talking mass school shootings. A mass school shooting I would classify as 3 or more deaths. The first mass school shooting occurred in 1968, the UT Texas tower shooting. That one was followed up by 2 in the 1970’s, 2 in the 1980’s, 10 in the 1990’s, 7 in the 2000’s, 13 in the 2010’s and 2 so far counting Texas for the 2020’s.

Which brings me to my point, I believe banning all semi-automatics would limit the damage done in each mass school shooting incidence. But not eliminate them. That the incidences of mass school shootings along with mass shootings in general will increase. Because we have left the cause, the root problem alone. We haven’t gone looking for it. We’re putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound so to speak. I suggest while we ban semi-automatics, we also delve deep into our society. Compare our society to the society when there was no mass school shootings, pre-1968 to post 1968 when mass school shootings along with mass shootings in general have become a normal part of our lives. In other words, go looking for the cause, the reason that all of a sudden mass school shootings went from zero to many. Banning semi-automatics isn’t about to give us the cause or reason. It’s nothing more than a limiting factor. That cause and or reason remains alive and well. Even with no guns at all, mass killings will continue only by other means, bombs, arson, chemicals etc. because we have done nothing to find the cause, to eliminate it.

Most gun control folks think I’m nuts. I think they’re nuts in expecting banning AR-15’s or even all semi-automatics will stop the killings. Maybe we’re all nuts. My 2 cents.