It is with some dismay that I read the March 18 front-page article by Megan Doyle, “We are gun owners.”

Let me say, at the outset. that I don’t own a gun but have enjoyed target practice and skeet shooting. I have friends and family who are hunters, and I have gratefully consumed the venison they have shared.

However, I take strong exception to her glaring omission of the term “assault weapons” from her coverage. Ms. Doyle mentions demonstrations across the country calling for stricter gun laws. But she fails to note that the focus of these demonstrations is on assault weapons and background checks. By not recognizing this reality, she implies a broader attempt at control that might affect the gun owners whom she highlights. That is simply not the basis of the student-led protests that were prompted by the recent mass murder of our children in Florida.

I am not in support of banning guns. I am unreservedly in support of banning assault weapons, which are weapons of war and should not be available for purchase in this country. We seem to be the only supposedly civilized government in the world that places the ownership of assault weapons above the lives of our children.

Dale Hahn

Cumberland Center