The following letter was published in the September 15, 2005 edition of The Jersey Journal. Similar letters were also sent to the Bergen Record, Newark Star Ledger and Asbury Park Press, but were not published.

The anniversary of the sunset expiration (Sept. 13, 2004) of the so-called Clinton Assault Weapons Ban has now come and gone. Despite all the hand-wringing, blood-in-the-streets, Chicken Little/sky-is-falling, dire predictions of this newspaper, and the very highly paid Hudson County public officials, it has proven to be no more than the boogie man stories mothers have been telling their little children forever.

I am a grown American citizen and lifelong resident of Hudson County, and there is no public official, elected or nonelected, who has any business depriving me of my right to peaceably own the firearm of my choice.

And "no," for you radicals out there, I'm not talking about machine guns - but only because I can't afford one or the ammo, or the jail term that is waiting for me even if I just hung it on the wall of my grossly over taxed New Jersey abode. So what do you need a "semi-automatic," "imitation," "assault weapon" for? Just ask the people on the Gulf Coast who dialed 911.

LAWRENCE J. BRAICO
Regional Vice President
The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, Inc.
North Bergen

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