Dear Editor,

So you want to ban the AR-15 rifle? Let me tell you what you’re up against, and what you keep doing to hurt your cause.

You’re up against the National Rifle Association’s five million members, all paying at least $30 annual dues. That’s $150 million annually. Many contribute more or, like me, are life members. Most are single-issue voters, for the Second Amendment, and they write letters, phone and email their/our representatives.  There is not a single gun control group that has this level of financial support or individual dedication.

Know what you are talking about. A “clip” is not a “magazine;” look it up. One hears Rep. C. McCarthy describing a barrel shroud as “a shoulder thing that goes up;” no it’s not, look it up. You are going to need the support of at least some gun owners; you lose them when you talk nonsense.

Ban “large capacity magazines” for the AR-15? Limit all magazines to 10 rounds? A standard capacity magazine for an AR-15 is 30 rounds.  Ban all 10-plus round mags? Many, if not most pistols have a standard mag. capacity of over 10 rounds, so now you have alienated many handgun owners.

You ask gun owners to compromise, but what are you willing to compromise on? Agree to national reciprocity (look it up)? Agree to suppressors’ removal from NFA rules (look it up)? No? Then what?

Many of today’s gun control groups started as gun ban groups.   H. Clinton said the “Australian example” of gun control should be considered (10/16/15), which was compensated confiscation, so when you say that you don’t want to take our guns, you are not believed. Imagine that you have banned the AR-15 (5.56MM)?  What about the AR-10, a larger (7.62mm), more powerful cartridge, but otherwise just like an AR-15? Ban that too? How about the various AKs in 7.62mm produced by the tens of thousands here? What about the wooden-stocked Ruger Mini-14 also in 5.56mm? Exactly the same ballistics as the AR-15. This is the “slippery slope” to a gun ban that concerns gun rights supporters. It is estimated that Australia removed about 50 percent of their targeted firearms. In the USA, that would still leave an estimated 150 million firearms, an estimated 4-8 million AR-15-style rifles remaining.

Chris Mielke
Sagle