Letter: Guns not allowed at gun range?

Dear Editor:

On the subject of proposing a ban of automatic weapons at the Libby shooting range, I laughed and yet was disturbed at the same time.

The rifle range isn’t an appropriate place for guns? Huh? Last I checked, automatics work the same way any gun does. You pull the trigger and a bullet (in the case of automatics – bullets) comes out of the barrel and if you keep the weapon pointed down range everything is perfectly safe.

Are machine guns somehow evil and more dangerous than other guns? They spit bullets at anything and everything with reckless abandon? When handled properly – as all guns should be – automatic weapons are no different or no more evil than any other gun.

Every year thousands of people gather at the Knob Creek range in Kentucky and have a safe, exciting time at the world’s largest machine gun shoot. We can’t, on very few occasions, have machine guns at our range in Libby?

As for the people who live near the Libby rifle range, tough. No one forced you to live near a rifle range. A .338 hunting rifle is louder any day than most automatic weapons. What’s next, we ban all large caliber hunting rifles (they sure are loud and go a long way), and semi-automatics? I don’t even own an automatic weapon, which are still legal in most states (you’ll have to jump through some ATF hoops) but I’ll fight to own and shoot them because once that right is gone what will be next?

I wish gun owners would get off the couch and stand up for their rights.

“Well, I don’t own one, so it doesn’t matter to me.” Maybe when it’s your hunting rifle and shotgun that are under fire, it will matter to you.

Nathan Cernick

Libby