In his recent commentary, Chronicle publisher  Chad Taylor decries the Washington legislators’ ban of assault weapons as a “knee-jerk reaction” to the problem and proceeds to provide several reasons for his reaction. 

However, his argument that “this ban could hinder (law-abiding citizens from) their ability to protect themselves” is specious and misleading. 

There are a plethora of guns still legal and available to people for their protection. What we don’t need are more assault weapon shootouts by anyone. Kudos to our legislators for enacting some common sense gun control laws.

Snoopy Smith

Centralia