High-capacity mags
I’ve changed my mind. It is time to ban large-capacity magazines in center-fire rifles. I say this as a gun owner, shooting sports enthusiast and a strong believer in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that it means what it says: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
And yet, in the real world we live in, a maniac can spray a hundred rounds of high-velocity ammunition into a crowded school, church or concert audience as fast as he can pull the trigger and snap in new magazines. We have seen the results too many times.
High-capacity magazines have no value in hunting, target shooting or home defense. Their only possible and constitutional use would be to repel invasion or to resist domestic tyranny.
I do not discount those remote possibilities, but there are certainly plenty of civilian guns around to do the job, if required. (And patriots would surely be able to get their hands on military stocks, if needed.) As Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto said, “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
I would support a ban on magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds and a “buyback” confiscation program providing fair compensation for gun owners surrendering high-capacity magazines.
I continue to oppose harassment legislation designed to do nothing but nibble away at Second Amendment rights, examples of which include Hawaii’s new $42 firearms registration and database fee, the ban on suppressors and the effective ban on concealed carry permits.
These restrictions are unreasonable and serve only to make it more difficult to keep and bear arms. High-capacity magazines are an entirely different matter.
Raymond Gagner
Laupahoehoe
Bad move, mayor
Shame on you, Mayor Harry Kim, for proposing to raise the general excise tax.
I thought we voted for you to get the government working again, instead of patting yourself and your high-paid managers with a huge raise in pay. And yet, when you go into any county office you still have to wait forever to be waited on while in the background a whole bunch of people working at desks won’t help you.
I hope you realize the people who put you in office will suffer under your extreme measure. Why don’t you look at who really is working and who isn’t? Just sayin’.
John Linneman
Volcano