Shotguns more lethal than AR-15s
Regarding Jerry Garwick’s letter (July 7) and his condemnation of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and his recommendation of his quaint 12-gauge shotgun:
Omar Mateen, murderer in the Orlando nightclub shooting, was able to fire 30 projectiles of .223 caliber from his AR-15 before having to reload. Had Mr. Mateen used Mr. Garwick’s shotgun, with its minimum five-shell, maximum nine-shell capacity, he would have been able to spew out a whopping 306 projectiles of the same size without reloading. Mr. Garwick’s shotgun/scattergun is capable of 10 times the firepower of an AR-15.
The AR-15 receives an inordinate amount of criticism based upon appearance in relation to other quaint firearms having the same capability. Banning the AR-15 is a precursor to banning all other semi-automatics that do not have the Big Bad Wolf appearance “of the AR-15.
“Assault weapons” are semi-automatics mocked up to look like machine guns. People who know little about firearms perceive these fake machine guns as heavy-duty killing machines compared to their quaint counterparts.
If Mr. Garwick wants more government restrictions on “killing machines,” I hope they start with his “killing machine.”
J.A. Martini, Fresno
This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Shotguns more lethal than AR-15s."