Who needs assault weapons?

For years we have been looking for something we can manufacture in the U.S. and export for a profit. At last we have found it: guns. Only the exports can't be recorded because the guns are smuggled into Mexico illegally.

Kudos to Alexandra Olson of The Associated Press for her April 2 article reporting that the ATF had traced and found that 95 percent of the guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico were from the U.S., and the weapons were increasingly higher powered, including .50-caliber Barrett rifles and ammunition that can pierce the armor of the Mexican soldiers.

The millions of dollars of guns smuggled into Mexico are offset by the millions of dollars of drugs flowing freely into the U.S. It is reported that 230 cities in the U.S. have been penetrated by Mexican drug cartels. Now, thanks to the gun lobbyists and the National Rifle Association, who were successful in getting the ban on assault weapons lifted, the Mexican drug cartels are winning the war on the border and slaughtering thousands of people.

There are five known cartels. The Juarez cartel is battling the Semaloa cartel, reportedly resulting in 2,700 homicides. The Gulf cartel is said to be the greatest threat to Mexican law enforcement. Mexican citizens in Juarez are afraid to get out of their homes. Recently, when an injured man was being rescued, the ambulance was stopped, the injured man was shot and killed and the police were unable to stop it.

The Mexican border is not the only place where murders with guns have been increasing. There have been 50 mass murders leaving more than 200 dead since the Columbine slaughter. On April 4 in Tacoma, Wash., a man shot and killed his five sons. The same day three policemen were shot and killed in Pittsburgh. The day before that, 13 people were massacred at a Binghamton, N.Y., community center. Before that there were the shootings at a nursing home in North Carolina and at Virginia Tech. The list goes on and on.

I always had a shotgun when I was growing up, and I hunted doves, rabbits and geese for supper. I had a .30-caliber rifle in the Marine Corps during World War II. After the war I had a 12-gauge shotgun to kill the varmints that were killing my pigeons and chickens. Never once did I ever, even vaguely, consider a need for any kind of assault weapon.

I think everyone should have the right to own rifles and shotguns for hunting and pistols for security and protection, even though they are more likely to get killed or end up in jail for killing someone else. Assault weapons, however, are designed to kill people, and I would like for anyone to tell me why he needs one.

It appears that lifting the ban on assault weapons was a huge mistake that will backfire on the gun lobbyists, the NRA and others who supported it. The next law will probably be a ban on possession rather than the sale of assault weapons.

Jack H. Knowlan Sr. is a Jackson resident.