We’ll never end maniacal shootings. But, let’s at least reduce the body count.

How many would have been killed in Las Vegas if this guy had 14, 24, whatever number, of hunting rifles or skeet shooting shotguns, or self-defense pistols?

They are the only weapons that should be in the hands of the public. “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”

Even outlaws don’t as a rule do mass killings.

But we could keep these war weapons out of the hands of potential maniacs along with the citizenry in general fairly easily with some common sense legislation.

Assault weapons, automatic weapons, have no place in the hands of anyone but those in the military designated to kill enemies.

It would be so easy to outlaw these mass killing instruments without in any way infringing on the Second Amendment.

Let’s force Congress to work on the NRA. Take it back to what it once was, a gun safety organization and not a fear-mongering lobby for the gun-manufacturing industry.

RON BOOTHE

Kingston