Both Keene and the nation are facing the question of whether we want more or fewer AR-15 assault rifles.
Nationally, President Biden recently called for a reinstatement of an earlier ban on the public sale of military-style assault rifles.
In angry response, Ronny Jackson of Texas (a candidate for a U.S. House seat) tweeted with a video and statement “I will never surrender my AR-15. If Democrats want to push an insane gun-grab, they can COME AND TAKE IT!”
In Keene, we were alerted to a not dissimilar approach to assault weapon ownership when our local gun range issued an open invitation for eight participants to come to a local “clinic” with the aim to “Build your own AR-15,” as announced in a headline in The Sentinel on July 13.
The aggressive stance of both our local gun range and Ronny Jackson to AR-15 ownership is most sadly inconsistent with the series of mass shooting tragedies that have cursed our nation, in which deranged assailants have been seductively attracted to the military firepower offered by assault rifles. While I do not accuse either the local gun range or Ronny Jackson of Texas of wanting to perform schoolroom atrocities or mass murders in other locations, I do charge them guilty of promoting an open hazard to the American public.
That the public would benefit from fewer, not more, assault weapons on American streets was championed by local voices in the pages of The Sentinel on July 21 and 22, and also a forceful Sentinel editorial on July 21.
It is past time to call for the Keene Ferry Brook Range to cancel any plans to build more AR-15 rifles in the coming weeks.
