If you are going to hunt migratory waterfowl, you should be aware that Congress has enacted a law that restricts the type of ammunition that can be used and limits the number of shells in your shotgun to only three before you must reload the weapon.

This law was enacted to protect our migratory waterfowl from being senselessly slaughtered. However, if one wishes to hunt people attending a political meeting in Arizona, the type of weapon, the size of the magazine holding the rounds, and the nature of those rounds are unrestricted. There are also no restrictions on the types of weapons one can use to kill college students attending classes in Oregon or Virginia.

We must prevent the senseless slaughter of ducks, but there can be no laws restricting weapons, magazines and the number or type of rounds employed to slaughter little children going to school in Connecticut, or folks going to see a movie in Colorado, or social workers at a holiday party in San Bernardino, or young people going out to enjoy Saturday night at a club in Orlando.

One need not fret about obtaining weapons or ammunition to use for mass murder, for there are no legal limitations on the purchase of military-style assault weapons that are fairly small, lightweight and can be easily and quickly assembled or disassembled and thus, unlike most rifles commonly used for hunting, are readily concealable. (When a soldier, I could break my M-16 apart and reassemble it in under a minute.) Nor are there any restrictions on large capacity magazines for those weapons or large magazines for semi-automatic pistols whose sole design and purpose is to kill people.

Oh, well, at least Congress has been able to find enough backbone and moral courage to restrict the sale and use of the firearms employed to hunt ducks. At least they can protect the ducks, even if they have been unable to do the will of the overwhelming majority of the people and save the lives of hundreds of our innocent fellow citizens.

Tom DeBor
Poulsbo