AR-15 not comparable to military weapon

The Jenny Durkan op-ed published Feb. 3 [“Our gun laws are not stopping the mayhem”] begs for a response and clarification. Her intro is heartwarming and, as a good attorney, she establishes a foundation for the balance of her comments. I applaud her efforts to get guns out of the criminal element, however, from that point, it goes downhill.

First the AR-15 she refers to has no more “precision or power” than any other rifle. It is in fact, merely a beefed-up .22 caliber, which is so small, it is outlawed for hunting, other than small game in Washington and most other states. She refers to it as being “designed for killing people” when in fact, it is a favorite cartridge for many varmint hunters and has been for years and is available in dozens of other rifle platforms.

She also states “military assault weapons should face restrictions.” I might agree, however, no organized military on this earth utilizes the AR-15 as standard issue. It merely looks like the M-16 utilized by many military forces. Would she ban the Hummer because it looks like a military vehicle and is likely responsible for more deaths than the AR-15?

As long as we are talking about military weapons, what about the thousands of M-1s and M-14s that were actually utilized by our military in prior wars and are currently in civilian hands?

--Garrett W. Waldner