Ban automatic weapons from general public

To the editor:

Regarding Jeb Bush's guest column 'Executive orders trample Second Amendment,” published Jan. 5:

After reading the guest column by Jeb Bush and his comments saying President Barack Obama's order tramples the Second Amendment, I feel it's time to take a deep breath and step back from wild rhetoric and use logic.

The Second Amendment was passed in 1791, when guns were muzzle loaders. It took time to load those weapons, unlike now when victims - at Columbine, Newtown, Virginia Tech, the Washington Navy Yard, Gabby Giffords and Christina-Taylor Green in Tucson, worshippers in Charleston, innocent workers in San Bernardino, Paris, France, John and Robert Kennedy, MLK Jr., Jim Brady and President Ronald Reagan and only God knows how many more - were mowed down in a very short time with assault rifles. Trayvon Martin and moviegoers have been killed in Bush's own state of Florida. It's time to stop this carnage of innocents.

Yet the National Rifle Association holds inordinate power to do what it wants for people who feel they need more automatic weapons that fire rounds faster than one can take a breath - too often her last one. Why are these even sold to the general public? No one is talking about a ban on weapons, although a ban on automatic weapons designed for war should be banned for the general public. What use is there for them, except to murder innocents?

Bobbie Paxton

Iowa City