Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “What Happened to the Ban on Assault Weapons?” (Op-Ed, April 27):

Former President Jimmy Carter is right about bringing back the assault weapons ban, including the fact that legitimate hunters and sportsmen have no interest in using such weapons for sport. He mentions the underlying cause that feeds opposition to it: the deep-seated fear among gun owners of anything labeled a “gun ban.”

A framework for breaking the political deadlock over gun control is to mimic international relations theory: renounce disarmament but embrace arms control, especially for weapons of military origin. Just as no serious sportsman will have difficulty agreeing that assault weapons and .50-caliber sniper rifles need not find their way into civilian hands, no serious gun control proponent should reject the principle that most gun owners are entitled to keep hunting and sporting weapons, the use of which traces to colonial times.

Robert Spitzer
Cortland, N.Y., April 27, 2009
The writer, a professor of political science at SUNY Cortland, is the author of three books about gun control.