I am a lifetime law-abiding gun owner and avid shooter. In my life I have had many occasions to buy firearms for sporting purposes. I have not had a need to own an AK-47 nor an opportunity to try one. I am told it is the finest assault rifle ever made. If I am in a situation wherein the AK-47 is the best choice, then I need to get one and I believe that I have that right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Assuming that situation is in defense of my home or country, if an AK-47 makes the difference in my family’s survival, then so be it.
 

If I need an AK-47, then I would logically buy one now. When called to defense there will be no time to shop. I believe this is the logic that law-abiding people use when they buy assault rifles. I also believe this is the logic used in the writing of the Second Amendment. If ordinary citizens need to defend our nation at any level, then they not only need guns, they need the best. It is for this reason that bans are wrong: They are an infringement on our right to keep and bear arms.
 

Bans don’t work because Americans are among the few people in the history of the world to taste freedom. They love it and they defend it with their lives. Freedom needs boundaries, which are constantly tested.

Civil rights heroes were pushing these same boundaries and so were the moonshiners of prohibition and Proposition 8 demonstrators.  We sometimes paint these individuals positively or negatively, but the spirit is the same. Therefore, building a modification of a banned gun (“What assault weapons ban?” July 16) is not a criminal act so long as the result is compliant. We often paint the individuals who do negatively, when we shouldn’t.
 

Regardless of the type of weapon, all people shot to death were killed by a person. No gun loads, aims, and discharges itself. No gun is mean, scary, or evil. No gun is a villain, but unfortunately some people are. The man who shot up that schoolyard with an AK-47 was a sick criminal. Other guns were used to stop him. Ask the parents of those kids if they would choose for a neighbor to have shot that guy in time to save their children. Ask them if they care what gun was used.
 

Guns are a beautiful part of this country. They won it, they defend it, and when bad people use them it takes good people with guns to stop them. These laws vilify heroes and manufacture felons where patriots once stood. They help no one except our enemies. Ban criminals, not guns.