To the editor:

The recent Las Vegas mass shooting should be a real wake-up call to people all over the United States. We need to put gun safety measures in place that will reduce such incidents in the future. The Constitution guaranties the right to bear arms, but I cannot believe that was ever meant to include military-type weapons.

My family was always pro-guns, including a grandmother who lived alone in the country and did not hesitate to defend herself! However, it is pure insanity to allow the sale of AK-47s and semi-automatic weapons along with the devices to make them fully automatic. And now this dangerous, latest move to allow guns to have silencers is totally beyond reason. Imagine if the attack in Las Vegas had been a silent one! How much longer would the shooting have continued beyond the 11 minutes that it did?

As voters and responsible citizens we must wake up and realize that it is in the best interests of all of us to separate the two ideas concerning guns: first of having a sacred right to bear small arms, and second of helping to ensure our safety from those murderous men among us by strictly limiting military-style firearms. Take a stand to make our communities safer! Speak up for sanity by writing your legislators.

Catherine Mack

Saranac Lake