With the ban on assault weapons expiring in the last few days there's been a big uproar. But what for? The ban on several types of weapons or clips was just to silence gun critics and make some politician in Washington happy so he can claim it on another one of his sick ads. Like earlier stated in The State News, some 105 incidents out of more than 900,000 are from assault weapons. Also, the ban let's you only have 10- round clips or magazines. News to all, you can go out and buy 100 of those 10- round clips if you wished. How often do you hear of these mass killings of people with an AK-47? Never. It's always daddy's shotgun or the old six-shooter in the glove box that ends up on the 6 p.m. news.

The anti-gun people are crying to get this reinstated and get harsher laws. But what about alcohol-related deaths? In Michigan just about every year alcohol-related deaths top gun deaths - or are close. We don't see legislation going through that restricts stores to only sell six-packs.

So, it's not the item or the commodity that has to be changed or regulated, it's the person. And no law or stipulation will ever stop people from doing what they want to do.

Chris Rinard
general management junior