I learned in my years of hunting that only incompetent hunters need or take more than three shots at a target. I have never heard a hunter complain about the federal migratory bird hunting regulation which limits guns to three-shot magazines. Nor have I heard complaints of Maine’s many limitations on weapons a hunter may use.

I propose we classify as a military weapon any gun with more than three-shell capacity and restrict its sale to military and police. I am not proposing to take away anybody’s existing weapons, merely that they may not transfer them and new weapons be limited to three shots. Military weapon classification would end tricks like bump stocks designed to circumvent the rules. Bump stocks are only a snippet on the problem, a distraction from creating reasonable rules. Military classification would give prosecutors and judges a fair and systematic way to identify the next mass murder device.

The NRA ballyhoos self-defense as a justification of guns and concealed carry. Perhaps once or twice a year we hear of some drunk trying to burglarize an occupied house only to be shot. If there were a measurable number of actual self defenses we’d hear a drumbeat of heroic stories. Instead, 10,000 Americans are killed by gun owners each year and more than 80,000 wounded.

Concealed carry and guns in schools teaching children that guns belong anywhere, any time for any reason, would be the NRA’s dream come true. Let’s call the gun crazies what they are and end this insanity. The problem is guns, they are everywhere. People use guns to kill.

Phillip Davis

West Gardiner