Editor:

I would like to applaud Paula Huff for her article in the Wildcat (Feb. 16) titled "Leave me and my guns alone." She makes a strong point that "All our government wants to do is gradually grind away our rights." However, she looses all credibility in the end of her article when she says the military firearms serve no purpose in civilian hands. She is giving away the very right she was protecting earlier. Contrary to her point, however, "assault weapons" do serve a purpose.

In the early 1900s the government created an Army organization called the Director of Civilian Marksmanship. It was created to train and educate the American public in the use of the current military firearms and provide basic marksmanship practice. This was done so if our people were called to serve during a time of war they would have fundamental knowledge of marksmanship before being sent into battle. This proved to work very well during World War II.

The DCM is still running today and holds competitions all over the country. These matches are an excellent way to become educated in firearms use. I hold five national championships all won with a rifle that was carefully defined by someone as an "Assault rifle." In the eight years I have competed I have never heard of any one of the thousands of competitors ever using their rifles to kill anyone.

Our country is one of the few that has the right to bear arms and any attempt to take any part of this right away endangers our freedom. "Assault weapons" are not the mass killing machines that Ms. Huff claims them to be, and do serve the purpose of training American people so we can keep our country free.

Harland Peelle
electrical engineering senior