I am a former resident of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, Conn., having lived there in the 1980s. My children attended the exceptional Newtown schools, and never in my darkest thoughts could I envision the atrocity that was perpetrated against innocent children and teachers. My anger is tempered only by deep feelings of grief for the victims and the hundreds in the school whose childhood innocence was unmercifully stripped from them.

The teachers did all they could to protect their children and undoubtedly prevented further carnage. The use of a .223 semiautomatic assault rifle to viciously murder those innocent children with up to 11 bullets is a true testimony to the insanity that perpetuates itself in the National Rifle Association's policy to fight any restrictions on the use of this type of weapon within the general population of gun owners.

I understand and defend the right to reasonable gun ownership under the Second Amendment, but the use of these terrorist weapons by anyone other than the police or our military must be outlawed. The NRA's blind support for these weapons allows this form of terrorism to continue to destroy the lives of many U.S. citizens, whose right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is being blown away bullet by bullet.

I know guns don't kill people, but these weapons assist those who do kill people. This is a negative form of American exceptionalism; exceptional stupidity in gun regulation. The Founding Fathers would take action. Will Congress?

Gerhard Fichtl

Hilton Head Island