I have one question for letter-writer Michael Rock (“‘Assault’ wrong term for rifles,” Dec. 27, TribLIVE), who quibbles about specifics of terminology and never mentions the terrible consequences of these weapons of mass destruction or any constructive solution: Was the Tree of Life synagogue massacre an assault?

So often I hear this distressing distraction from a very serious issue, from gun defenders who can offer no plausible defense for the misguided legality of “assault” rifles, or whatever you want to call them. They try to change the conversation by silly nitpicking over the definitions of these weapons. Meanwhile, 30,000-plus people continue to die each year from gun violence.

With each shooting, the social and political pressure increases for sensible reforms to our crazy gun situation, which the authors of the Second Amendment surely didn’t intend. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later that the gun apologists will have to give up the deadliest of their toys for the safety of the rest of us.

What is this crazy love affair so many of us have with guns? It happens nowhere else in the world. When do the rights of a noisy few end to allow the “right to life” of the rest of us?

Al Duerig

Salem

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