Who needs an assault rifle?

Here’s something you should know about those killings in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater: The police responded within three minutes. But in that time alleged shooter James Holmes was able to kill and wound 70 people.

Why? Because he had an assault rifle with large magazines. Luckily, the gun jammed; otherwise more people would have been shot.

When gun-control advocates talk about increasing restrictions, they’re referring to assault rifles, not handguns or hunting rifles. These rifles are extremely dangerous tools. In the wrong hands, as we’ve seen over and over, they can inflict tremendous damage. They have no other purpose but to kill human beings. They are meant for the military, not people like James Holmes. It’s utterly shameful that the National Rifle Association continues to resist any reasonable effort to restrict and monitor their sales.

Currently Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was killed and son grievously injured in 1993 in a mass shooting by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad, has a bill, H.R. 308, that would bring back the assault-weapons ban that, under pressure from the NRA, was lifted in 2004. The bill would also restrict the sale of large magazines, which enable shooters to kill many people in a short amount of time.

This bill would not infringe on anyone’s right to possess a weapon for self-protection, target shooting or hunting. It would apply only to weapons and magazines that exist for the sole purpose of inflicting as much mayhem on human beings as possible.

If the killings in Aurora have disturbed you as much as they have so many Americans, contact your congressional representative to voice your support of commonsensical controls on assault rifles and large magazines.