Letter to the editor: Do not legalize gun silencers

PAT BATES | Clarkston

Common sense, a hearing aid, a belief in humanity? What is going to make Cathy McMorris Rodgers quit working for the NRA and protect the people? Why would she want to hide a bill that would allow gun silencers to be bought by anyone? Why would she support hiding the bill in a seemingly good bill entitled the Sportsman’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act?

Currently, gun silencers are among the items listed by the Federal Firearms Act as “destructive devices,” along with grenades, sawed-off shotguns, machine guns, etc. These lethal weapons require federal registration and a special license; not just anyone can access and use these weapons. But, McMorris Rodgers and the House GOP say no. Their Hearing Protection Act will make silencers as easy to obtain as guns are now. What further carnage might Stephen Paddock have done in Vegas if he had silencers in his arsenal as he began his mass shooting of humans?

McMorris Rodgers’ staffer tried to spin her reason for supporting gun silencers by saying she believes in the Second Amendment and that hunters should be able to hunt. I asked what hunters had to do with gun silencers and killing people? Once again, hunters are being used to deflect their true purpose of giving any kind of gun to any kind of person to kill people, not animals.

The mass shooting of human beings has made them stop for now, but they will try again as soon as we forget.