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I wonder how many more graveside memorials we will attend with friends and family of a loved one slaughtered by a man with an assault rifle? How many more times will our liberty be stolen from us as we “shelter in place” because a man with an assault rifle threatens the community?
What are we willing to pay, again and again, to clean up, bury our dead, and heal the wounded after a man with an assault rifle takes our freedom? These are the reasons that in 1994 as part of legislation for public safety we banned these killing machines for 10 years. How long will we bury our loved ones while a few believe that freedom includes the right to own a killing machine that threatens the lives and freedom of everyone else in the community — an assault rifle which requires less regulation or mental health than we demand to drive a car?
How many more loved ones will die, not in a war defending our country, but in a bowling alley, restaurant, or school, before we, the majority of Americans, demand our liberty to go to the grocery store without the fear of being gunned down by another man with an assault rifle?
Steve Kelley
Kennebunk