With all the talk of gun control, it only seems fitting to talk about the bigger and deadlier elephant in the room, motor vehicles. There are about 284 million vehicles on the road in the United States, and in 2020 there were 38,824 vehicle-related deaths 2020. Comparatively, there are 393 million guns in private ownership, with 19,384 murders. So statistically, cars are even deadlier than guns. In 2019 the Chevy Silverado was responsible for 8777 deaths, whereas rifle-type guns (including AR-15s) only account for 2.6 percent of murders in 2019. By this logic, we should be focused on banning Chevy Silverados. But the even bigger question is, where is the outrage? Why does the AR-15 get more attention when the Chevy Silverado has killed more people? Shouldn’t congress be concerned with these four-wheeled killing machines? Representatives like Congresswoman Elise Stefanik are smart enough to realize that there is a common denominator, people, not guns. Our Second Amendment rights shall not be infringed upon. Thank you, Elise, for standing up for what is right and standing up for our Constitution.
Bill Coffin, Herkimer County Republican Executive Committee Member, NYS Republican Committee Person
Ilion, NY
Democrat candidate Matt Castelli does not support banning AR15’s. His years in service to our country in National Security and Counter-terrorism involved the need to carry firearms He is in favor of building coalitions to address the epidemic of gun violence in our nation and feels that any extreme measures undermine such coalition building.