To the Editor:

If Chris Murray has fired the M-60 and M16A-2 in the military, he should know that those weapons are machine guns that fire more than one bullet out of the barrel with each pull of the trigger. He claims that these military only guns are what gun enthusiasts are wanting to protect from proposed bans on “assault weapons,” such as Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (Dem. Calif) S150 bill.
Mr. Murray is either horribly confused on this or is trying to confuse the readers. Machine guns have been under strict federal control since the 1930s and the days of  Al Capone and Bonny and Clyde.
Some of the current crop of civilian legal assault guns that you may purchase at Franklin’s Sports in Athens or at Walmart may look like machine guns, but are semi-auto only, firing just one bullet for every trigger pulled.   
Mr. Murray can learn about this technical difference by ordering a free manual published by ATF, (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), entitled Federal Firearms Regulation Reference Guide, ATF pub. 5300.4

George H. West
Madison
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Printed in the February 14, 2013 edition